Sacred Bald Eagle Becomes U.S. National Emblem !

This Date in Native History: On June 20, 1782, the Continental Congress approved the bald eagle as the national emblem and the central image on the Great Seal of the United States.

The bird, found exclusively in North America, for centuries was held sacred by American Indians, who recognized its significance and symbolism long before Europeans arrived. The bald eagle now is displayed prominently on U.S. stamps, coins and currency and on the official seals of at least 17 branches and departments of the federal government—not to mention the countless times it appears in art, music, literature, commerce and culture of the United States.

Ironically, the eagle has become a symbol of freedom and sovereignty for the most powerful nation in the world. But before it graced the back of the quarter, the president’s letterhead or the seal for the Central Intelligence Agency, the eagle was simply a sacred symbol of valor, grace and protection.

“In an eagle there is all the wisdom in the world,” Sioux medicine man Lame Deer once said. “If you are planning to kill an eagle, the minute you think of that he knows it, knows what you are planning.”

Eagles appear in many tribes’ creation stories, and they are revered because of their strength, boldness and courage to withstand any obstacles, said Francis Mitchell, a Navajo medicine man.

“The eagle was given the power from above,” he said. “Whatever was before it, it would conquer and not back off.”

American Indians were not alone in their respect for eagles. Widely known as the king of birds, eagles were used as symbols of power by ancient Babylonians and Assyrians, Elizabeth Lawrence wrote in her 1990 article “Symbol of a Nation: The Bald Eagle in American Culture.”

Approval of the eagle on the Great Seal of the United States came despite naysayers who viewed the bird as inferior to American values. Benjamin Franklin famously endorsed the turkey as a more appropriate symbol, calling the eagle “a bird of bad moral character” and a “rank coward.” The turkey, on the other hand, was a “much more respectable bird” and a “bird of courage.”

 After signing the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, Congress appointed a committee including Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams to choose a design for the national seal. Neither this committee nor a second one appointed six years later produced a design Congress found suitable to represent the country.

The seal Congress adopted depicts a bald eagle in frontal position with a red, white and blue shield over its body. An olive branch is clutched in its right talon to represent peace, and 13 arrows—one for each colony—are grasped in its left talon, representing the power to wage war.

The national seal and the American flag are the only two symbols created by law. As such, eagles are protected by additional federal laws, said Steve Oberholtzer, special agent in charge for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s mountain-prairie region. Migratory and protection acts guarantee bald and golden eagles—the only two eagles found in North America—are safe from human predators.

 

A lithograph of the Great Seal of the United States, made by Andrew B. Graham of Washington, D.C. probably in the 1890s, soon after the seal had been greatly redesigned in 1885. This version hung for many years in the office of the keeper of the Great Seal. Graham had once been an employee in the U.S. Coast & Geodetic Survey, but worked as a lithographer from 1888 on. (Wikimedia Commons)

 

The only exception to protection laws is American Indians wishing to use eagles or their parts in ceremonies or for other sacred purposes. More than 3,500 orders come in to the repository every year, Oberholtzer said.

Despite its elevated status as a political and cultural symbol, the bald eagle continues to be a quiet symbol of protection for American Indians, Mitchell said.

The original design of the Great Seal of the United States from 1782. (OurDocuments.gov)

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$7.5K in rewards offered for info on bald eagle shooter !

The Humane Society of the United States and The Humane Society Wildlife Land Trust are now jointly offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information on who is responsible for shooting and injuring an American bald eagle found in the backyard of an Alexandria home,

According to a press release issued Monday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, officials are seeking information "leading to the conviction of the person or persons responsible" and are offering a reward of up to $5,000 for this information, in addition to a $2,500 reward from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The roughly 3-year-old male bird, which was rescued after a three-day effort, suffered a broken leg and punctured air sack from two pellets found in its body while under the care of The Raptor Trust

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Bald eagles are protected by the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, as well as the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and shooting a bald eagle is a violation of federal law, the release states.  Someone convicted under the acts could face imprisonment of up to a year-and-a-half with maximum fines of $100,000 and $15,000, respectively.                " 

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"This senseless shooting of our national symbol is a serious crime and we are appalled at the blatant cruelty involved," said Kathleen Schatzmann, New Jersey state director for the Humane Society of the United States. "We are grateful to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife for their diligent efforts to bring the offender to justice

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Anyone with information about this case should call the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement in Elizabeth at 908-787-1321 or 1- 844-FWS-TIPS (397-8477).
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Wolf hunting in Peace Region could have no limits, province proposes.........!!!

B.C.'s Ministry of Forestry, Lands and Natural Resource Operations wants to remove limits how many wolves hunters can kill in the Peace Region and when.The changes were proposed on Nov. 30 on a ministry website that accepts public feedback on changes to regulations. The proposed changes would also remove the time limits on the hunting season. As it stands, hunters can only kill three wolves each year in the Peace Region between Aug. 15 and June 15.  Radio West attempted to reach the ministry for comment on the proposed changes, but staff have declined interview requests since Tuesday.According to the ministry, approximately 275 wolves in the Peace were killed by hunters annually from 2000 to 2010, equating to 14 per cent of the local population.

Changes proposed for grizzly limits as well

The ministry is also proposing to triple the number of grizzly bears that can be killed in part of the Peace Region called MU 7-52, from 50 to 150.

MU 7-52 is a remote area of Northern B.C., bordered approximately by the Kechika River, Turnagain River, Highway 37 and the Yukon border. The nearest community is the First Nations community of Good Hope Lake, with less than 50 people.

According to the ministry, the area has an estimated population of 459 grizzlies, the highest in the Peace. Annually, about eight grizzlies are killed by hunters each year in MU 7-52.

Professor and activist questions rationale

Under the "rationale" section of the bear hunting proposal, the ministry notes it based its proposal on population estimates. Science director for Raincoast Conservation Foundation and University of Victoria professor Chris Darimont said that set off alarm bells for him.  He said population estimates are just "best guesses," and that there are a lot of unknowns about grizzlies, their population rates, how fast they reproduce and what kills them.   "The fear here is with these increased authorizations, hunters will be taking more bears than are produced," he told Radio West host Rebecca Zandbergen.  He said the lack of notice about the consultation period is fairly typical, and shows the government has "preferred constituents" on these matters — especially those involved in the trophy hunting business. Under the "rationale" section of the wolf hunting proposal, the ministry notes that "verbal reports from many stakeholders and First Nations" suggest high populations, and wolves can threaten cattle.

"As a hunter and naturalist myself, I know that what we see in the bush can not necessarily reflect reality," he said. "To get good measures of abundance of animals requires lots of money and lots of time, and that due diligence has not been done by the province."

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Watch Donald Trump Get Attacked By A Bald Eagle !!

The bird flapped, pecked and scratched away at the leading candidate for the Republican nomination, in what feels like an all-too-real metaphor for the current state of American politics.

Yep, you heard that right. Trump was attacked by the very symbol of the United States of America.

The real estate mogul turned TV personality turned presidential wannabe was posing with the bird for Time "Person of the Year" issue. The photographer, Martin Schoeller, thought that having Trump hold a 27-year-old bald eagle named "Uncle Sam" would make for a nice photo.

Last August, as Person of the Year runner-up Donald Trump was establishing himself as a real contender, the candidate agreed to pose with a bald eagle for a TIME cover story. The idea came from Martin Schoeller, the award-winning portrait photographer and frequent TIME contributor who shot the cover.

That's when the 27-year-old eagle leans down to try and take a little peck at Trump, though he doesn't make contact, as Trump dodges him.

Uncle Sam doesn't like people touching stuff on his desk. Sorry.

The results are a hilarious reaction shot of Trump next to America's symbol, trying to avoid an unwanted bite.

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“HAIR IS AN EXTENSION OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM” – WHY NATIVE AMERICANS KEEP THEIR HAIR LONG...

There is some interesting information out there about hair and the role it plays in intuition and the nervous system.

Keeping one’s hair long is viewed as a choice. The style is personal preference, and people who keep their hair long are viewed as hippies, hipsters, or just plain lazy. However, a whole different story emerged during the time of the Vietnam war.

It seems that during the Vietnam War special forces in the war department had sent undercover experts to comb American Native American Reservations looking for talented scouts, for tough young men trained to move stealthily through rough terrain. They were especially looking for men with outstanding, almost supernatural, tracking abilities. Before being approached, these carefully selected men were extensively documented as experts in tracking and survival.

With the usual enticements, the well proven smooth phrases used to enroll new recruits, some of these Native American trackers were then enlisted. Once enlisted, an amazing thing happened. Whatever talents and skills they had possessed on the reservation seemed to disappear mysteriously, as recruit after recruit failed to perform as expected in the field.

When questioned about their failure to perform as expected, the older recruits replied consistently that when they received their required military haircuts, they could no longer ‘sense’ the enemy. They could no longer access a ‘sixth sense’, their ‘intuition’ no longer was reliable, they could not ‘read’ subtle signs as well or access subtle extrasensory information.

So the testing institute recruited more Native American trackers, let them keep their long hair, and tested them in multiple areas. Then they would pair two men together who had received the same scores on all the tests. They would let one man in the pair keep his hair long, and gave the other man a military haircut. Then the two men retook the tests.

Here is a standardized test:

The recruit is sleeping out in the woods. An armed ‘enemy’ approaches the sleeping man. The long haired man is awakened out of his sleep by a strong sense of danger and gets away long before the enemy is close, long before any sounds from the approaching enemy are audible.

In another version of this test, the long haired man senses an approach and somehow intuits that the enemy will perform a physical attack. He follows his ‘sixth sense‘ and stays still, pretending to be sleeping, but quickly grabs the attacker and ‘kills’ him as the attacker reaches down to strangle him.

How is this possible? It all has to do with how we as humans have evolved. Every part of the body has a purpose, and when we lose touch with ourselves and our bodies, we lose the true power we have.

Hair, like skin, is an extension of the nervous system, it may be correctly seen as exteriorized nerves, a type of highly evolved ‘feelers’ or ‘antennae’ that transmit vast amounts of important information to the brainstem, the limbic system, and the neocortex.

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‘An Indigenous Peoples’ History Of The United States’, and ‘Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir’.wins Literary Awards!

OAKLAND -The 25th Annual PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Literary Award was awarded to six people on Saturday, December 5, 2015. One third of the winners were indigenos Woman (what are the odds?).  Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz won the award for her book, “An Indigenous Peoples’ History Of The United States”, and Deborah Miranda for her book “Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir”.The award for “An Indigenous Peoples’ History Of  The United States” was accepted by Nanette Deetz because Ms. Dunbar-Ortiz was out of town. Nanette Deetz had nominated Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz book for the award.

“An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States provides an essential historical reference for all Americans… The American Indians’ perspective has been absent from colonial histories for too long, leaving continued misunderstandings of our struggles for sovereignty and human rights,” says former Navajo Nation President Peterson Zah.


“Bad Indians brings the human story of California’s indigenous community sharply into focus. It’s a narrative long obscured and distorted by celebrations of Christian missionaries and phony stories about ‘civilization’ coming to a golden land. No other history of California’s indigenous communities that I know of presents such a moving, personal account of loss and survival.” — Frederick E. Hoxie, Swanlund Professor, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign



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Lung Cancer: Facts, Types and Causes

Lung cancer is the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells that start off in one or both lungs; usually in the cells that line the air passages. The abnormal cells do not develop into healthy lung tissue, they divide rapidly and form tumors.

As tumors become larger and more numerous, they undermine the lung’s ability to provide the bloodstream with oxygen. Tumors that remain in one place and do not appear to spread are known as “benign tumors”.

Malignant tumors, the more dangerous ones, spread to other parts of the body either through the bloodstream or the lymphatic system. Metastasis refers to cancer spreading beyond its site of origin to other parts of the body. When cancer spreads it is much harder to treat successfully.

Primary lung cancer originates in the lungs, while secondary lung cancer starts somewhere else in the body, metastasizes, and reaches the lungs. They are considered different types of cancers and are not treated in the same way.

According to the National Cancer Institute, by the end of 2015 there will have been 221,200 new lung cancer diagnoses and 158,040 lung-cancer related deaths in the USA.

Total deaths worldwide caused by cancer each year

• Lung cancer - 1,370,000 deaths
• Stomach cancer - 736,000 deaths
• Liver cancer - 695,000 deaths
• Colorectal cancer - 608,000 deaths
• Breast cancer - 458,000 deaths
• Cervical cancer - 275,000 deaths

The American Cancer Society says that lung cancer makes up 14% of all newly diagnosed cancers in the USA today. It adds that annually, more patients die from lung cancer alone than prostate, breast and colon cancers combined (in the USA).

Female lung cancer rates set to rise rapidly

Over the next three decades, female lung cancers will increase thirty-five times faster than male lung cancers, scientists from King’s College London reported in October 2012.

The scientists estimate that in the UK, female lung cancer deaths will reach 95,000 annually in 2040, from 26,000 in 2010 – a rise of more than 350%. Male annual lung cancer deaths will increase by 8% over the same period, to 42,000 in 2040 from 39,000 in 2010.

How is lung cancer classified?

Lung cancer can be broadly classified into two main types based on the cancer's appearance under a microscope: non-small cell lung cancer and small cell lung cancer. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for 80% of lung cancers, while small cell lung cancer accounts for the remaining 20%.

• Squamous cell carcinoma or epidermoid carcinoma. As the most common type of NSCLC and the most common type of lung cancer in men, squamous cell carcinoma forms in the lining of the bronchial tubes.
• Adenocarcinoma. As the most common type of lung cancer in women and in nonsmokers, adenocarcinoma forms in the mucus-producing glands of the lungs.
• Bronchioalveolar carcinoma. This type of lung cancer is a rare type of adenocarcinoma that forms near the lungs' air sacs.
• Large-cell undifferentiated carcinoma. A rapidly growing cancer, large-cell undifferentiated carcinomas form near the outer edges or surface of the lungs.
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• What causes cancer?

  Cancer is ultimately the result of cells that uncontrollably grow and do not die. Normal cells in the body follow an orderly path of growth, division, and death. Programmed cell death is called apoptosis, and when this process breaks down, cancer begins to form. Unlike regular cells, cancer cells do not experience programmatic death and instead continue to grow and divide. This leads to a mass of abnormal cells that grows out of control.

• Carcinogens

  Carcinogens are a class of substances that are directly responsible for damaging DNA, promoting or aiding cancer. Tobacco, asbestos, arsenic, radiation such as gamma and x-rays, the sun, and compounds in car exhaust fumes are all examples of carcinogens. When our bodies are exposed to carcinogens, free radicals are formed that try to steal electrons from other molecules in the body. These free radicals damage cells and affect their ability to function and divide normally.

Genes

Cancer can be the result of a genetic predisposition that is inherited from family members. It is possible to be born with certain genetic mutations or a fault in a gene that makes one statistically more likely to develop cancer later in life. Genetic predispositions are thought to either directly cause lung cancer or greatly increase one's chances of developing lung cancer from exposure to certain environmental factors. 

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