A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Hunting Ground

At a recent writers conference I attended, I noticed that a lady at my table asked for a vegetarian meal and got some sort of pasty-looking veggie pot pie while I ate chicken breasts and potatoes. That got my inquisitive little brain working.

How many Native American cultures embraced vegan cuisine in the old days? My guess is, "not too many." Sure, they gathered nuts, berries and roots, but their main source of protein was meat; whether it was deer, mountain sheep, grouse, turkey, antelope, fish, seal, whale or bison.

The whole idea was probably to have enough energy to chase the next meal down and feed the family. Carrots and wild rice didn't have enough umph to get the job done. Neither did corn.

So where did all of this "healthy" veggie stuff come from? Now we find out that wheat and sugar supposedly aren't good for a body. Whole milk is out. Vitamin and electrolyte water is in (wonder what the tribes did without Gatorade).

I think the ancients would have labeled these type of folks unkindly and quite possibly crazy in the head. It's impossible to get a good vegetable casserole in the dead of winter, after all.

Even hard-core vegetarians use protein supplements. What's the point? A wolf or grizzly would eat you without a second thought and we're higher on the food chain than they are, so chew on that as you munch your kale salad!

Someone's logic is haywire.

Gary

An Interesting Tidbit

I just read that film star Johnny Depp is considering purchasing the land that the battle of Wounded Knee occurred on in South Dakota and returning it as a gift to the Oglala Lakota Sioux. It is sacred ground to them and always has been.

A non-Native owns the land right now and reportedly wants to sell it for an obscene price because of its notoriety. That is sad.

Hats off to Mr. Depp if the report is true and he carries through with his intentions. Some Natives have criticized his portrayal as a Crow brave in his most recent film, but no one should criticize his heart for doing a noble thing.

Gary

No Disrespect Meant

Considering the events of the past few weeks, it would be extraordinarily easy to focus on those in a blog like this. I have free latitude to write just about anything that comes to mind, whether from a philosophical soapbox or subject matter having to do with my genre of writing. I'm not the conscience of my readers, though.

I will normally try to allow you to gather insights of news worthy significance elsewhere except when it strikes home directly to me. I will retain that right because, well, it's my blog!

We've lost wildland firefighters (my son is one in the USFS), we've lost airline passengers, a new Miss Washington chosen (my middle daughter was one in '06), we've had senseless murders, countries overthrown, etc. I'm sure you can see the balancing act necessary to keep to my subject and those of current events proportional.

I want to remain focussed on the purpose of my blogs -- telling the reader about the things transpiring in my world of writing and some of the personal notes that contribute to my sense of story telling. Therefore, if something considered "big" happens and I don't blog about it, it is not that I don't care. There are generally others who serve in that function. I'm just an author who tells stories.

Gary

Oh, and "The Sheep Eater" is coming along nicely. I'm 54,000 words into the story and things are about to get out of hand!