|
~~~~ THE TRUTH SHOULD BE KNOWN BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE ~~~~
|
Jun 10, 2009 6:55 am
670 Views
|
During the course of WORLD WAR TWO
.
Some facts are known to only a few
Americas Native Indian Men
Helped this WORLD WAR to win!
With an unbroken message code
Through foreign winds rode
Sent by American radio dispatch
Knowing enemies these messages they would catch
To Native Indian Men WIND TALKER was the name
To U. S. commanders Native code talker the same
On the wind Native Indian messages spoken
And to enemies the code was never broken
The enemy many messages they read
But could not understand Native Indian words said
Plans set and codes in secret
Caused many an enemy ambush set
Battles waged and easily won
With Native Indians using their Native tongue
The enemy found the WIND CODE unable to break
So the war was won for Americas sake
Native Indians helped bring peace
Some gone
Too many to name each
But Chester Nez was one
With others who received commendation
From the President of the U. S. As NATION
Many underestimate the power of Native Wind Talkers
As Natives know when this world of vast technology fails
Our Golden WIND LANGUAGE communicates without technology.
Code Unknown
After years of secrecy, the contribution of Navajo code talkers to America's World War Two effort is recognised in John Woo's latest film, Windtalkers. Brian Pendreigh talks to one of the original code talkers.
Chester Nez reckons he was just turning 18 when the Marines came to his school in Arizona one day in 1942.
Pearl Harbour had been attacked and America was mobilising for a massive response.
They needed men.
But the Marines were looking for a particular type of men. Tough, yes.
Resourceful, certainly.
But there was one vital prerequisite for these special recruits. They had to be Navajo Indians, preferably full-blooded bucks straight off the reservation.
The Navajo are the largest tribe in the United States, occupying land on the borders of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. They were farmers and herders, a comparatively peaceful people - it is said the Navajo Way is the Middle Way.
They never acquired the notoriety of their southern cousins the Apache, or the Sioux or Comanche, though they did get to play them in some classic westerns.
Whenever John Wayne shot an Indian in a John Ford movie, you could bet it was a Navajo.
Nez was born in a wooden shack at a place now called Oak Canyon, up on the Arizona-Utah border.
His parents grew corn and pinto beans in the dry earth and kept a few goats and sheep.
He is not exactly sure when he was born.
But he was young and hardly stopped to consider the mistreatment of his people - the hundreds who died on an enforced march to New Mexico in the 1860s, the starvation and infant mortality on the reservation, even in the 1940s, and the fact the Navajo were still not allowed to vote in state elections.
The way Nez saw it, he was being given the chance to represent his tribe and fight for his country. He took it.
Sam Billison was born in a hogan of wood and earth, with a medicine man to guide him into the material world.
But he was educated at Roman Catholic boarding school, where pupils were taught to forget the past and think like the white man. He joined up in 1943 because he wanted to be like John Wayne.
Around this time Wayne gave up killing Indians for a while and almost single-handedly won the war in a series of films including Sands of Iwo Jima.
But Billison was at Iwo Jima for real.
While Wayne did everything he could to avoid military service, Navajos died at Iwo Jima, for their tribe, their country, or maybe even the desire to emulate the John Wayne they had seen on the big screen.
When the smoke cleared, Major Howard Connor, 5th Marine Division signal officer, concluded: "Were it not for the Navajos, the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima."
It was the final irony - it was not John Wayne who won the battle for the Pacific, it was the Indians.
Yet when Billison and Nez returned to the United States they were sworn to secrecy for more than 20 years about what they had done in the war, about the secret code they used to send vital messages between troops.
The Japanese could intercept and translate radio messages with ease, until the Marines brought in the Navajos.
They communicated in a fast, accurate, verbal code based on their own ancient Navajo language and the Japanese were stumped.
Too "shy" for stardom
President Bush belatedly presented the Congressional Gold Medal to four surviving members of the original 29 Navajo "code talkers", and to family representatives of others.
Their story is the subject of John Woos new film Windtalkers, though the Navajo have to settle for a supporting role in their own movie - the main star is Nicolas Cage, playing a bodyguard assigned to protect a code talker.
"What these men did is incredible," says Cage. "Im honoured to have been involved in the film and help bring their accomplishments to the public eye."
Woo held open auditions for Navajos, but cast only one, in a supporting role, complaining that they were just too shy.
There were about 400 code talkers in total, but many are dead now, the remainder old men.
Conversation is not always easy.
It is taboo among Navajo traditionalists to talk about the dead by name for a start.
Those who agree to talk answer questions precisely and modestly -it may be the Navajo Way, but it is not the Hollywood Way.
Human costs
Chester Nez has lived among white men for a long time.
After the war he worked as a painter in a veterans hospital in Albuquerque and now lives in retirement with his sons family in the New Mexican state capital.
But only when asked the direct question "Were you wounded?" does he reveal that he was.
"We were making a landing," he says, talking slowly, each word deliberately and carefully fashioned somewhere deep down inside of him.
"We disembarked from the landing craft.
The enemies were shooting and everything like that, and artillery firing, and all the shrapnel was just flying all over. And thats where I got caught."
Nez was lucky - he sustained only a minor foot injury.
"One of my uncles was a code talker and he didnt make it back." His name was David Wilson, he thinks, or maybe Thomas Wilson.
He is not sure.
Navajos often use several different names anyway.
"He was killed in action at Peleliu."
Nez too was part of the invasion force fighting for possession of that six-mile long coral islet, site of a Japanese airstrip, 500 miles east of the Philippines.
Ethnic cleansing
Two years earlier he had been sitting quietly in a classroom in Tuba City High on the Navajo Indian Reservation.
The reservation is home to quarter of a million people, and countless snakes, lizards and coyotes, spread across a bleached, stony desert, more than twice the size of Belgium.
The politically correct term is now the Navajo Nation, but many, particularly older people, prefer Reservation or "Rez". Political correctness is the refuge of the humourless and the Navajos are not without a sense of humour.
Asked why the Navajo build their houses so far apart, the hero of Tony Hillermans novel People of Darkness replies, "We dont like Indians". 
Nezs family lived in just such a spot.
They saw few strangers and spoke only Navajo.
His mother died when he was an infant and it was a struggle for his father to raise a young family alone.
One day a Mexican trader came by and told Nezs father about free boarding schools.
Some children were forcibly removed from their parents and sent to boarding schools that would bring them up as if they were white.
"Tradition is the Enemy of Progress" proclaimed the notice at one.
Children were taught English and forbidden to speak their native language.
"They were pretty strict," says Nez.
Pupils caught speaking Navajo had their mouths washed out with soap.
"It was a bitter, brown soap, and they used toothbrushes to scrub our tongues with it."
Inventing a secret code
Navajo was a complex language, without a written alphabet and heavily dependent on tonal qualities.
The Government estimated only about 30
non-Navajos could understand it, none of them Japanese.
The son of a missionary, Philip Johnston had grown up among Navajos, he was one of the 30 and it was Johnston who suggested Navajo might be the answer to the search for an unbreakable military code.
"When they came by, they didnt tell us what we were supposed to do in the corps," says Chester Nez, "but they were looking for some Navajos."
He and the other 28 original recruits were sent to Camp Elliott, near San Diego.
"They put us in that one big room, they locked the door behind us, and they told us to make up a code from A to Zee, and this is all related to our language, our native tongue."
Wol-la-chee, the Navajo word for ant, represented the letter A, no-da-ih the Navajo word for Ute (another tribe) represented U, and so on. The word had to be translated into English before the listener could work out the letter it represented. But several Navajo words were used to represent the same letter, and code talkers did not have to spell out every word, and many military terms had their own specific term. Da-he-tih-hi translates literally as humming bird, but was used to mean fighter plane. "It took us almost 13 weeks to compile all this code in our new tongue," says Nez.
Next they would be required to memorise it and use it.
Nez shipped for New Caledonia and from there it was on to the jungle island of Guadalcanal.
"Thats the first combat baptism that we endured," he says.
"Thats where we used code in our new tongue for the first time."
Friend or foe
Windtalkers makes a predictable point about racism, though Nez says he never encountered any racial prejudice, or rather he never encountered any anti-Indian prejudice.
There was one unfortunate incidence of racial discrimination one day when Nez and another Navajo accompanied an army unit.
"When we had finished our duty, sending messages back and forth, and started to go back, two guys approach us and stop us and ask us what we are doing.
They thought we were a couple of Japanese.
"They kept us there for two or three hours until they sent a guy to verify that we were a couple of code talkers working with them at the communication centre.
One guy came by and told them: These two guys was the life-line."
By the time of Iwo Jima, Nez had been wounded and had spent so long in combat the military shipped him home on leave, but Billison was there.
Asked what the Navajo did at Iwo Jima, he laughs quietly to himself and pauses.
"Thats a big question," he says.
There is a long pause. "Well, we did practically everything I guess."
A little more prompting... "Code talkers were assigned to infantry, tanks, artillery, some were aboard ships.
We were just part of it."
A few Navajos served as ordinary soldiers and one was captured at Bataan.
By this time, the Japanese had concluded the code was in Navajo and tortured their captive in an attempt to get him to translate it, but he could not make any sense of jumbled mentions of humming birds and ants.
The Japanese broke all the other codes, but they never managed to break the Navajo one.
There is no doubt about the codes importance, but Windtalkers ran into problems with the idea that Cages character would be ordered to kill his code talker rather than risk him being captured.
The suggestion did not originate with the film, but the Marines insist no such order was ever given and the Department of Defense reportedly threatened to withdraw co-operation.
"They might have done it earlier in the war, but we dont know anything about it in the latter part of the war," says Billison. A form of words was found, and Cage is told his job is to protect the code, rather than the man.
Kill the messenger
Billison worked as a school principal after the war, he now lives in Window Rock, capital of the Navajo Nation, sits on the tribal councils education committee and is president of the Navajo Code Talkers Association, in which capacity he was consulted about the script.
He is upbeat about it.
"It will be good to further give people more education or more knowledge about code talkers," he says.
After the war, the US was unsure when it might have to call upon the Navajo again, so their work remained a military secret.
They were forbidden from talking about it, even to their families.
"The only thing we told them was we just fought the enemy," says Nez.
"Thats about it."
But what loving wife or child would not expect full details on how Dad helped John Wayne defeat the Japs?
"They kept on asking us and asking us," says Nez.
"And we never told them what we really did."
It was the late 1960s before the operation was finally declassified and by then the world had moved on and no one was interested in a bunch of Indian radio-operators.
Their story remains little-known outside the Navajo Nation. Maybe Windtalkers will help spread the word... even if Hollywood does still seem to be struggling to come to terms with the idea that its stars should no longer be shooting Indians, and that it was the Indians who were the real heroes at Iwo Jima and Guadalcanal.
|
|
|
0
Comments
|
|
|
~~~~ INDIAN WIND TALKERS ~~~~
|
Jun 9, 2009 9:13 am
767 Views
|
we give our best words to carry through the winds
The people work in circles, that is because the power of the world works in circles.
Everything tries to be round, the sky is round,and I have heard the earth is round and so are the stars in the night sky.
The wind in it's great power whirls round.
The birds make their nests round and the dog circles its bed. For theirs is the same spirit as ours, the life of men from childhood to childhood is a circle.
"NATIVE AMERICAN CODE OF ETHICS"
1. Rise with the sun to pray...
Pray alone...
Pray often...
The Great Spirit will listen, if you only speak.
2. Be tolerant of those who are lost on their path.
Ignorance, conceit, anger, jealousy - and greed stem from a lost soul.
Pray that they will find guidance.
3. Search for yourself, by yourself.
Do not allow others to make your path for you.
It is your road, and yours alone.
Others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you.
4. Treat the guests in your home with much consideration.
Serve them the best food...
give them the best bed and treat them with respect and honor.
5. Do not take what is not yours whether from a person...
a community, the wilderness or from a culture...
It was not earned nor given...
It is not yours.
6. Respect all things that are placed upon this earth...
whether it be people or plant.
7. Honor other people's thoughts, wishes and words...
Never interrupt another or mock or rudely mimic them...
Allow each person the right to personal expression.
8. Never speak of others in a bad way.
The negative energy that you put out into the universe will multiply when it returns to you.
9. All persons make mistakes...
And all mistakes can be forgiven.
10. Bad thoughts cause illness of the mind, body and spirit... Practice optimism.
11. Nature is not FOR us...
it is a PART of us...
They are part of your worldly family.
12. Children are the seeds of our future.
Plant love in their hearts and water them with wisdom and life's lessons.
When they are grown, give them space to grow.
13. Avoid hurting the hearts of others.
The poison of your pain will return to you.
14. Be truthful at all times.
Honesty is the test of ones will within this universe.
15. Keep yourself balanced...
Your Mental self...
Spiritual self...
Emotional self...
and Physical self...
all need to be strong, pure and healthy.
Work out the body to strengthen the mind.
Grow rich in spirit to cure emotional ails.
16. Make conscious decisions as to who you will be and how you will react.
Be responsible for your own actions.
17. Respect the privacy and personal space of others.
Do not touch the personal property of others - especially sacred and religious objects.
This is forbidden.
18. Be true to yourself first...
You cannot nurture and help others if you cannot nurture and help yourself first.
19. Respect others religious beliefs...
Do not force your belief on others.
20. Share your good fortune with others.
May The Great Spirit Smile down on you...
and keep you and yours safe...
May the trail rise up to meet you...
May the wind be always at your back...
May the sunshine warm upon your face...
May the rain fall soft upon your fields...
And until we meet again...
May The Great Spirit hold your hand...
in the palm of his hand"
~~Native American~~
Your good workers are in motion
the prayers were sent out.
|
|
|
2
Comments
|
|
|
~~~~ NOT EASILY BROKEN ~~~~
|
Jun 9, 2009 8:02 am
796 Views
|
The title refers to a length of rope placed around husband and wife during their wedding.
It has three strands:
one for each of them
and one for God.
As long as the three are together,
the bond is "not easily broken."
The theory is that in a marriage there should be three strands, one for each party involved and the third for God.
Without the third strand, the two cannot make a strong bond. This movie deals with a couple in what is at first thought to be a good and loving relationshipuntil trouble comes knocking at the door.
Then the little problems that were not so evident, at first, come out into the open.
Without giving away too many details lets just say that both sides have people that are leading them into situations that are not good for the marriage.
It isnt until they both realize the need for looking to God that things begin to correct themselves.
This is not something that is very noticeable, since neither of them really state it, but it is mentioned by their bishop.
|
|
|
3
Comments
|
|
|
~~~~ PAUSE FOR OTHERS ~~~~
|
Jun 7, 2009 8:19 am
701 Views
|
an Air France plane that disappeared while flying from Brazil to Paris crashed into the ocean
this is for all the beautiful people on that plane that lost their lives.
MY FRIEND
From the darkness you were calling my name...
From the darkness to you I came...
You told me that it was time for you to go...
You asked me to be with you until the end...
On my knees I sat with you and held your hand...
There were no tears or sadness that came from my heart...
I knew that you would soon be in a better place ...
A place of rest and happiness with no end...
How happy I was to be with you my friend...
Your eyes grew dim and your face pale and slow...
Your breath was shallow...
As I held your hand...
I could feel the warmth flowing through your hand...
You turned your face away from me...
As you looked to the sky...
That is when your breath was gone with a sigh...
Your eyes grew cloudy...
Your gentle hand became cold...
As I sat with you my friend of gold...
My friend...
I refuse to say goodbye to you...
Your beautiful spirit will be in my heart for an eternity.
~~ Native American ~~
|
|
|
1
comment
|
|
|
~~~~ THE BUILDER OF DREAMS ~~~~
|
Jun 7, 2009 7:23 am
882 Views
|
"Earth Dance" When Horse dances the medicine wheel his hoof beats resound the earth like a drum
The spirits rise to meet him, offering a sacred dance
South ~ Earth...
Beaver ~ the builder of dreams
Eagle ~ Fire... illuminator of spirit, healing and creation - being of
the Sun Bear ~ Water... link to the unconscious mind
Massauu ~ Air
the God of earth and rebirth.
This Horse brings forth these beings for healing...
His own healing, for his beloveds, and others who will come.
~~by K.M.~~
ANIMAL CHARACTERISTICS & MEANINGS
Alligator - Maternal, revenge oriented, quickness, aggression, and basic survival instincts.
Ant - Group minded, determination, patient, active, and industrious
Anteater - Lethargy, curiosity, nosiness.
Antelope - Active, agile, jumpiness, and willing to sacrifice
Armadillo - Safety oriented, grounded, and has boundaries
Badger - Courage, aggressive, healer, having problems relating to others, and energy conduit
Bat - Rebirth, longevity, secrecy, initiation, good listener, and long life
Bear - Industrious, instinctive, healing, power, sovereignty, guardian of the world, watcher, courage, will power, self-preservation, introspection, and great strength.
Beaver - Determined, strong-willed, builder, overseer, and protector
Bee - Organized, industrial, productive, wise, community, celebration, fertility, defensiveness, obsessive nature, and enjoys life
Boar/Pig - A very powerful totem - prosperity, spiritual strength, organized, self-reliant, fearless.
Buffalo - Sacredness, life, great strength, abundance, gratitude.
Bull - Insight into the past, fertility, rushing into things without proper preparation.
Butterfly - Metamorphosis, transformation, balnace, grace, ability to accept change
Camel - Survival, positive, accomplishments
Caribou - Traveler, mobility, preference to be nomadic, adaptability to adversity
Cat - Guardianship, detachment, sensuality, mystery, magic, and independence
Cheetah - Swiftness, insight, focus
Cougar - Leadership, loyalty, courage, taking responsibility, foresight
Cow - Swift, insightful, and focused
Coyote - Trickster, intelligence, stealth, wisdom and folley, guile and innocence
Cheetah - Nourishment and mother figure
Cobra - Swift and decisive
Coyote - Stealth, mischief, rickster, intelligent, clowning around, ability to recognize mistakes.
Crab - Good luck, protection and success
Crane - Solitude, justice, longevity, independent, intelligent, and vigilant
Crocodile - Ensuring your emotions are displayed accurately/appropriately
Crow - Justice, shape shifting, change, creativity, spiritual strength, energy, community sharing, and balance
Deer - Compassion, peace, intellectual, gentle, caring, kind, subtlety, gracefulness, femininity, gentleness, innocence, and seller of adventure
Dog - Noble, faithful, loyal, teaching, protection, and guidance
Dolphin - Kind, salvation, wisdom, happiness, playfulness, prudent, capable of deep emotion, and happy.
Dove - Cross-world communication, spirit messenger, peace, gentleness, love
Dragon - Longevity, richness, prosperity, infinity, wisdom, power, and fiery
Dragonfly - Flighty and carefree, strong imagination, higher aspirations.
Duck - Water energy, helper of seers, can clearly see/deal with emotions
Eagle - Divine spirit, sacrifice, connection to creator, intelligence, renewal, courage, illumination of spirit, healing, creation, freedom, and risk-taker
Elephant - Strength, power, affection, loyalty, royalty, and wisdom
Elk - Strength and agility, pride, majestic, independence, purification, strength, and nobility
Falcon - New beginnings, adventure, passionate, and leadership.
Fish - Graceful, slyness, open-minded, quick to change one's mind.
Flamingo - Heart healing, psychic, people person, flirtatious.
Fox - Cunning, agility, quick-witted, diplomacy, wildness, feminine magic of camouflage, shapeshifting and invisibility
Frog - Water energy, cleansing, rebirth, sensitivity, medicine, hidden beauty, peace, adaptability, poor character judgment and power.
Gazelle - Aggressive
Giraffe - Communication, intuition, attaining the unreachable, seeing the future
Goat - Surefootedness, stubbornness, independence, diligence, lack of foresight.
Goose - Self-demanding, reliable, prudent, rigid, vigilance, parenthood, and productive.
Gorilla - Family-oriented, intelligence, strength, environmental protector, keeps peace through aggression.
Grasshopper - Good luck, abundance, forward, progressive.
Grouse Personal power, enlightenment.
Hawk - Messenger, intuition, victory, healing, nobility, recollection, cleansing, visionary power, and guardianship.
Heron/Egret - Aggressive, self-determined, self-reliant, multi-tasking, balanced.
Hippopotamus - Power, creation, imagination, healing.
Horse - Freedom, stamina, mobility, the land, travel, power.
Hummingbird - Messenger, timelessness, healing, and warrior.
Jaguar - Chaos, shape-shifter, aggressiveness, power.
Kangaroo - Forward, balance, creative, stamina.
Lion - Family, strength, energy, courage, guardian and protector.
Lizard - Conservation, vision, self-protection, hidden defenses.
Llama - Comforting to others, secure.
Lynx - Keeper of secrets, guardian, listener, and guide.
Mole - Sensitivity, guidance, searching.
Monkey - Ability to change the environment, health, success.
Moose - Headstrong, longevity, steadfastness, and wisdom.
Mouse - Scrutiny, order, organizer, and an eye for details.
Octopus - Intelligence, camouflage, nocturnal.
Opossum - Diversion, strategist, and deceiver.
Ostrich - Grounded, practical.
Otter - Playful, friendly, dynamic, joy, helpfulness, and sharing
Owl - Deception, clairvoyance, insight, messenger.
Ox - Sacrifice, chastity and self-denial
Panther - Protection, hidden emotions, introspection, caution, careful decisions
Parrot - Communication, beauty, guide for wisdom, mockery, thinking before speaking
Peacock - Immortality, dignity, and self-confidence
Pelican - Resilient, unselfish, rising above.
Penguin - Self-discipline, grace, self-confidence, spiritual
Porcupine - Innocence, companionship, and trust
Prairie - Dog Swiftness, industrious, constructive, preparedness
Puma - Companion on journeys to other worlds, grace, silent power
Quail - Group-work, team play, creator of harmony and group
tolerance, protectiveness (especially toward children)
Rabbit - Fear, timidity, nervousness, humility, rebirth
Raccoon - Curiosity and cleanliness
Ram - Stoic, sensitive, persevering, curious, imaginative.
Rat - Fertility, stealth, scavenging, intelligence, enjoys luxury
Raven - Introspection, courage, self-knowledge, magic
Rhinoceros - Wisdom, solitary, insightful, solid.
Roadrunner - Mental agility, speed, opportunistic.
Rooster - Vanity, likes to be showered with gifts and attention, early riser, settling for nothing less than the best
Salmon - Proud, intense, confident, wisdom, inspiration
Scorpion - Transforming, strong, inspiring, chaotic, passionate
Seagull - Versatility, loud, easy-going nature, creativity, laziness
Seahorse - Confidence and grace
Seal - Love, longing, dilemma, active imagination, creativity
Shark - Hunter, survival, and adaptability
Skunk - Reputation, presence, and strength
Snail - Protective, aware, solitary.
Snake - Impulsive, shrewdness, rebirth, transformation, initiation, and wisdom
Spider - Balance, wisdom, creativity, communication
Squirrel - Planner and gatherer
Stag - Lord of the forest, masculine power of regeneration, signs.
Swan - Grace, balance and innocence, soul, love, beauty, of the self
Tiger - Strength, valor, power, and energy
Toad - inner strength, luck, self-examination
Turkey - Generosity, life-giver, and sharer
Turtle - Nurturer, shy, and protecting
Unicorn - Purity, innocence, dreamer, personal power, gentle
Weasel - Strength, energy, ingenuity and stealth
Whale - Wisdom, provider, intelligence, and kindness.
Wolf - Loyalty, perseverance, success, intuition, and spirit
Woodpecker - Sensitive, protective, and devotion
Zebra - Agility and individuality
|
|
|
6
Comments
|
|
|
|
|
~~~~ GOD"S GARDEN ~~~~
|
Jun 4, 2009 6:36 am
572 Views
|
God made a beauteous garden
With lovely flowers strewn,
But one straight, narrow pathway
That was not overgrown.
And to this beauteous garden
He brought mankind to live,
And said: "To you, my children,
These lovely flowers I give.
Prune ye my vines and fig trees,
With care my flowrets tend,
But keep the pathway open
Your home is at the end."
Then came another master,
Who did not love mankind,
And planted on the pathway
Gold flowers for them to find.
And mankind saw the bright flowers,
That, glitt'ring in the sum,
Quite hid the thorns of av'rice
That poison blood and bone;
And far off many wandered,
And when life's night came on,
They were seeking gold flowers,
Lost, helpless and alone.
O, cease to heed the glamour
That blinds your foolish eyes,
Look upward to the glitter
Of stars in God's clear skies.
Their ways are pure and harmless
And will not lead astray,
But aid your erring footsteps
To keep the narrow way.
And when the sun shines brightly
Tend flowers that God has given
And keep the pathway open
That leads you on to heaven.
God's Garden by Robert Frost
Nature and Frost's rural surroundings were for him a source for insights "from delight to wisdom", or as he also said: "Literature begins with geography."
Frost entered Dartmouth College in the fall of 1892 but disliked formal study so intensely that he left after only two months. During the next two years, he earned a living in miscellaneous ways while sending poems to uninterested editors. In 1894, to celebrate his first sale of a poem - "My Butterfly- An Elegy" - he privately printed six of his poems in a booklet entitled Twilight, an edition limited to two copies, one for his fiancee Elinor White and one for himself.
After his marriage in 1895, Frost taught for two years at his mother's private school in Lawrence and then spent the next two years as a special student at Harvard. In 1900, for health reasons, he moved to a small farm in Derry, New Hampshire, and conducted a small poultry business there until 1905.
Failing as a farmer, he taught various subjects at Derry from 1905 until 1911 and then moved to Plymouth, New Hampshire, where he taught psychology for a year in the New Hampshire State Normal School.
By 1912 Frost had decided to devote his main efforts to poetry, and fortified with the money obtained from the sale of his Derry farm and an annuity of $800 left him by his grandfather, he set sail for England with his family.
Settling first in Buckinghamshire and then in Herefordshire, he cultivated the friendship of a number of English poets. Composing a few new poems and selecting others written at Derry and elsewhere, Frost prepared a volume for publication.
Mrs. Alfred Nutt of London brought out the first book, A Boy's Will, in 1913.
A second, North of Boston, appeared the following year.[/B
Robert Frost reaped more honors during his lifetime than any other American poet before him.
On four occasions he received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: in 1924 for New Hampshire, in 1931 for Collected Poems, in 1937 for A Further Range, and in 1943 for A Witness Tree.
In 1939 he became the third poet in history to receive the coveted gold medal of the National Institute of Arts and Letters.
In 1958 he was appointed Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress.
Frost became such a national institution that he was asked to read a poem at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy on January 20, 1961. Perhaps the most eloquent tribute paid to him after his death was made by a fellow poet, John Ciardi, who said simply: "He was our best."
]At 81, Mr. Frost led the way along narrow trails, like a fox nimbly picking its way over tree trunks and boulders, and around wet spots, over stone outcroppings, and under dangling branches.
He walked like an Indian, keeping straight ahead, relaxed.
He never seemed anxiously bent on seeing something nor grimly determined to revel in the open air. He was completely naturalized, and the inflections of his voice drifted slowly to me
|
|
|
0
Comments
|
|
|
~~~~ ROBERT FROST - POEM FOR THE NATIVE AMERICANS ~~~~
|
Jun 3, 2009 7:20 am
584 Views
|
In his poem, The Vanishing Red, Frost writes about the death of the last Indian in America.
Technically, the poem is a statement about the white settlers who pushed the Native American off his land, and took possession.
In history, this is known as Manifest Destiny, belief that America had to expand her borders from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
This was done at the expense of the Native Indians who occupied this territory.
They were pushed, relocated or murdered off their land.
~~THE VANISHING RED~~
He is said to have been the last Red man
In Action.
And the Miller is said to have laughed--
If you like to call such a sound a laugh.
But he gave no one else a laugher's license.
For he turned suddenly grave as if to say,
'Whose business,--if I take it on myself,
Whose business--but why talk round the barn?--
When it's just that I hold with getting a thing done with.'
You can't get back and see it as he saw it.
It's too long a story to go into now.
You'd have to have been there and lived it.
~~ by Robert Frost ~~
|
|
|
0
Comments
|
|
|
~~~~ DO YOU KNOW WHO ~~~~
|
Jun 2, 2009 8:15 am
672 Views
|
Geronimo was a famous Apache Indian who was known as a great medicine man and spiritual leader.
For years, the Apaches, like many Native Americans, fought US troops for the right to remain on their lands.
After years involving capture, imprisonment, relocation, and escape, Geronimo was re-captured and imprisoned at Fort Sill, in Oklahoma territory.
During this imprisonment, Geronimo was given permission from the War Department to attend a ceremonial farewell of surviving Native American chiefs called "The Last Pow-Wow."
During the five day summit in 1907, Geronimo wore a traditional native American costume, moccasins, and an eagle-feathered headdress.
On September 3, 1999, 92 years after the Pow-Wow, the FBI received an email complaint from an alert observer that the headdress was being sold on the Internet!
Do you know who was illegally selling this historical headdress of Geronimo's?
|
|
|
0
Comments
|
|
|
~~~~ FIRE OF NATIVE BLOOD ~~~~
|
Jun 1, 2009 9:31 am
710 Views
|
It is not blood that makes a Native American...
It is the Soul...
Too many...with the fire of Native blood...walk ignored.
Do not say I am Apache or Kickapoo..
Do not say I am Sioux or Cherokee..
Say...I am of the Mother Tribe.
This is the pain of our children..
To return from the stars without a home or community...
A tribe lost returns...scattered in the wind.
Those who hear must unite and reap the seed of this return...
ONE tribe...ONE Earth...ONE Heart...ONE People.
those with ears must build a fire and give thanks this night.
Be united with ONE soul...
Oh, my Children come home...
Teachers step forward without fear!
You are real!
Poet Unknown
*****************************************************************
An understanding heart is everything in a teacher, and cannot be esteemed highly enough.
One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feeling.
The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.
Carl Jung
*****************************************************************
|
|
|
2
Comments
|
|
To link to this blog (foxxxfireehottie) use [blog foxxxfireehottie] in your messages.
|
|
|
| Sun |
Mon |
Tue |
Wed |
Thu |
Fri |
Sat |
1
|
22
|
3
|
41
|
52
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
93
|
10
|
11
|
12
|
13
|
142
|
15
|
16
|
17
|
18
|
19
|
20
|
21
|
22
|
23
|
24
|
25
|
26
|
27
|
28
|
29
|
30
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
