This beautiful subspecies of the Gray Wolf is the smallest of all the wolves. The Mexican Gray weighs between 60-80lbs and can be characterized by it's long legs, lean body, rounded ears and a shorter tail.
Abscent from the landscape for more than 30 years, the howl of the Mexican gray wolf can once again be heard in the mountains of the southwestern United States specifically in New Mexico and Arizona. The Mexican Gray wolf is currently protected by the Endangered Species Act and is getting a second chance through a recovery program led by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The Mexican Gray wolf once roamed throughout vast portions of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico. But human settlements soon encroached upon the Mexican Gray's space in the early 1900s and the wolves increasingly came into contact with livestock operations and other human activities. By the 1970’s, the Mexican wolf had been all but eliminated from the United States and Mexico through private and govt. extermination campaigns.


After the Mexican Gray wolf was added to the ESA, both the U.S. and Mexico began captive breeding programs to try to bring this great little wolf back from the grips of extinction. They were then slowly released into a specific area of recovery in Arizona and New Mexico. Currently there are only 50 Mexican Grays left in the wild. They are not thriving in the wild and their recovery has been hampered by alot of poaching. Large rewards have been offered to try to bring this poaching to a stop.

This majestic little wolf is very important to the health of the southwestern ecosystem. However, they are still considered to be on the brink of extinction. Wolf lovers and advocates around the world are optimistically hopeful that the Mexican Gray will eventually make a full comeback in time and that it's spine tingling howl will be heard for a long time as "El Lobo" continues to run free in the wild. Until that time comes, the fight must go to keep them protected!

Take Action:
Please contact your Senators today and ask them to oppose the Section #1713 clause that contains language to eliminate protections for the wolves. It is attached to the budget bill that must be passed by March 4th.
contact the U.S. Senators

Specifically for Arizona residents: Contact your Ariz. state senators to oppose 2 bills against the Mexican Gray wolf - SB 1392 & 1395.
Link

Kirby Sattler is a contemporary artist whose paintings reflect his inherent interest in the Native American People. 

He interprets his art in the multidetail of the spirituality, mythology, history and ceremony of the Plains Indian. His artistic interpretations speak of the inseparable relationship between the Native American and the world he lives in. A world in which the sacred and the everyday are blurred into similar beliefs. A world in which respect for the land, the animals and the people are held with the same reverence.

Sattler's paintings reflect a very unique and distinctive realistic style. His technique involves the layering of multiple underpaintings. This results in paintings that are very rich in detail with painstaking attention given to the texture and surface of his art.

Because of the time and precision that Sattler gives to each work of art, he only produces a few paintings every year. But it is always well worth the wait.

This story takes place in Romania in the Carpathian Mountains.
More than 3,000 Transylvanian wolves live in the Carpathian Mountains in Romania thus making it the largest wolf population in Europe second only to Russia. The Transylvanian wolf also known as the "Forest Wolf" is a gray wolf subspecies. They are very large wolves that can weigh up to 130 lbs.

Dreaming of Wolves is a wonderful story of adventure. It portrays an intimate and intricate portrait of the lives of wolves, of the researchers who study them, and of the rural people who share their homeland through a series of entertaining and humorous vignettes and thought provoking and informative essays. All of this takes place in a very remote mountainous area untouched by modern civilization.

The adventures of Alan Sparks and his human 'pack', begin with the "howl of a wolf that breaks the silence of the mountains and sends chills down his spine". As they track and relate to these wild wolves, they end up sharing multi-layered experiences that prove to be much deeper than any of them would have ever imagined.

We as the readers, are all privilaged to share in this journey as though we were along with them. Through the author's compassionate and thought provoking story, the legacy of the wolf, the honoring of nature and life itself becomes enriched in our minds and is often seen through the eyes of the wolf. This book is highly recommended for all wilderness and nature lovers and is a definite must for those who love wolves. It is a delightful story and a real page turner.


Transylvania : noble, mist-crowned mountain peaks form the backdrop for wildflower-carpeted meadows and silent! legend-haunted forests and wolves


Wolves of Carpates

Link to Purchase "Dreaming of Wolves" Dreaming of Wolves: Adventures in the Carpathian Mountains of Transylvania

Based on a true story. Marcos was born in 1946 into a poor family in a small town in the Sierra de Córdoba. During those years of hunger and poverty it was common practice among the poorer households to sell some of their children to farmers to tend their herds of goats and sheep. So Marcos, at the age of 7 years, is sold to a pastor who lives in a lost valley of the mountains.

After some months the pastor dies and Marcos is left alone and isolated. Living there for 12 years without any contact with humans, his friends are the wolves, eagles and a snake.

At the age of 20, Marcos is arrested by the Guardia Civil after he was found in the forest, barefoot, wearing animal skins with his hair to his waist.

Marcos is sent first to a convent to be educated, and then to Cordoba where he joined the army. Marcos however never managed to adapt to society and his dream was always to return to live among the wolves.






WATCH FULL MOVIE LINK SPANISH

If you look closely at these animal couples, you'll see them hugging, flirting or kissing each other - just like people in love.

They are the  messenger of deep, unconditional and truest love, it's joy in it's purest form. They are companion, lover, soul mate.

"Two souls with but a single instinct, two hearts that beat as one." Love is the emblem of eternity: it confounds all notion of time: effaces all memory of a beginning, all fear of an end. Love can be found anywhere, in anything.

Animal freedom is without hope, without 'should', without condition .Their love is instinct.  A free animal simply is, in every moment, free. The sound of wild that leads them into freedom .It sparks up the fire - a flame that burns forever.

Long ago, as the world’s first day drew to a close, there was only the moon to bring light to the dark veil of Night.
And all of the creatures, who had marveled at the wonders of the day, said “Well, the day is filled with all sorts of wonder, but Night is so dark. The clouds are hard to see, and even the moon will go away for a time, like tides.” And all of the day creatures hid from the darkness, and all of the night creatures sighed, feeling that their time was unfinished, dull next to the day.


And Nature, taking to heart their thoughts, asked who we call Raven to decorate the nighttime sky, for she was a bird of twilight, awake during the day, but with midnight plumage. So Raven flew far and wide, searching for something beautiful with which she would decorate the sky. She would make the night beautiful, something which all creatures could look up and marvel at. So Raven decided to make stars, which she would place in intricate designs all over the sky, like beads. And, she decided, she would make stars from all things, so that every creature could look up at her stars, and know that they were made of the same things. She built a great fire, using wood from all trees, and tufts of fur and feathers, and shed skin from all creatures. It burned bright and hot, and as it did so, she caught the floating embers from the fire, placing them in her bag.

When she had filled her little bag, Raven felt very tired. For she had flown a long way, gathering wood and fur and feathers, but she had done it quickly, and there was still much daylight left. So she decided that she would rest on a low branch near the dying fire, until nighttime came, when she would place the stars in the sky in intricate patterns, like beads.

And as she rested, along came the one we call Coyote, padding along through the sunset. Now Raven and Coyote were good friends, and enjoyed many games with one another. And Coyote, being the trickster that he was, saw the little bag and thought to himself “What a joke it would be, to take that little bag and hide it somewhere?” So he snuck up next to her, grabbed the bag into his teeth, and ran away through the brush.

He ran far, because Nature had endowed him with speed like many other creatures, but as he ran, he did not see the thorn bush in his path, which caught the bag and tore it open in his teeth. And all of the dull little embers spilled out, falling into the now-dark sky.

And just then Raven awakened, to see all of her red-glowing stars splashed across the sky, with no beautiful pattern at all, like beads. And she saw coyote’s prints, and followed, for she knew coyote, and his heart. And when she found him, he saw her, and the look on her face. He knew he had done a great wrong, and he began to cry. So sincere were his tears that his sobs turned to song:

Yip-yap-yap-Arrrrrrroooooooo-oooo-ooo-oooooo!



And Nature heard this crying, and saw what had happened. So she let the Coyote’s voice drift all the way up to the stars, and like blowing on embers, they began to glow brighter. They grew white-hot and beautiful in the sky. And Raven saw the stars that she had made, though they were not in intricate patterns like beads, were beautiful and wondrous in the sky. So Raven told Coyote that she’d forgive him, but only if he kept the stars bright.

So, with the help of all howling things, Coyote did just that, and the stars shone brightly.

And that is why Coyote, cries in the night.

Yip-yap-yap-Arrrrrrroooooooo-oooo-ooo-oooooo!

The buffalo of the American West was a mighty symbol and part of life for the Plains Indians. They built their way of life around the buffalo ( more accurately called the American bison). At one point before the Europeans settled in America, the buffalo numbered between 17 and 60 million head.

However, with the introduction of cattle ranching, agrarian society and eventually the railroad that was built across the entire country, the American buffalo was nearly wiped out. The buffalo were literally outrun and shot from the trains that ran out west. At it's lowest point there were only about 1,000 buffalo left. This dramatic reduction in their numbers also had a disasterous effect on the Plains Indians.

Today the buffalo has been restored out west in Yellowstone National Park and on some Native American reservations. But it's existence continues to be in jeopardy. Currently, hundreds of buffalo that have come down from the mountains in Yellowstone to find food in the winter have been rounded up and corralled in tight quarters to be tested for brucellosis(a disease that causes stillborns and sterility). Those that have tested positive are in danger of being sent to slaughter because ranchers are worried that it could be transmitted to their cattle. There is little evidence though that this disease is transmitted by the buffalo but rather by the numerous elk in the area.


The American Buffalo is a majestic icon of America's past and present and this attack on them must be stopped before history repeats itself. Please take a moment to treasure this wonderful animal and to sign several petitions to stop any further assault on them.

1- Petition to Jon Jarvis, head of the National Park Service, to abandon the failed Interagency Bison Management Plan and stop slaughtering the Yellowstone bison, an American icon.

Stop the Yellowstone Bison Slaughter

2- Petition to abandon Slaughter option for Bison (buffalo) with Brucellosis. Use preventative methods instead. Slaughtering the bison has more to do with ranchers on public lands who want more food/room for their cattle.

No More Slaughtering

3- Petition to stop herding the buffalo back into Yellowstone National Park through the use of helicopters, horses and ATVs which cause deaths from stress and exhaustion.

Stop the Hazing of Wild Buffalo


Contact New Yellowstone Superintendent, Dan Wenk!

"What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset."

For Cree people,the word tipi doesn’t mean anything. There is a Cree word we use today;we say migawap. But traditionally,we say Kitche Migawap (Sacred).

In cree language, for old woman, we say, Notegweu. Years ago we used the term Notaygeu, meaning when an old lady covers herself with a shawl. A tipi cover is like that old woman with a shawl. As it comes around the tipi, it embraces all those teachings, the values of community that the women hold. No matter how many children and great grandchildren come into that circle of hers, she always still has room. And if you put it up right, the poles never show on the bottom, and that tipi stands with dignity, just as, years ago, women always covered their legs with the skirt, which also represents the sacred circle of life. And when you put the flaps up, it teaches you how we embrace life itself. It’s like a woman standing there with her arms out, saying “Thank you” to everything.

The Cree people use 15 poles to make the structure of the tipi. For every pole in that tipi, there is a teaching. So there are 15 teachings that hold up the tipi. Other Nations use 16 poles, and maybe more, I don’t know. All I know is what I know I was taught and that is the teachings for 15 poles.

1. Tipi Poles. Three or four make the basic framework of the tipi. Long poles are prized where tall, straight trees are scarce. Some poles become the framework of the travois when traveling.

2. Quiver with arrows - arrows are striped with paint to mark ownership.

3. Medicine Bag - special parfleche for sacred items that represent things seen in the owner's visions.

4. Tipi lining - additional layer of skin, often brightly painted.

5. Parfleches - are the closets and drawers of the tipi.


6. Buffalo-skin bedding - is rolled and stored during the day.

7. Altar - for burning sweetgrass or other incense during ceremonial occasions.

8. Smoky flaps - can be adjusted to retain heat or to ventilated.

9. Wooden lodge pins - care removed to fold the Tipi for traveling.


10. Wooden bow - is shaped by heating and beading. Bowstrings are made of sinew, rawhide or twisted vegetable fiber.

11. Shield - some battle shields are painted with pictures from visions, which offer spiritual protection. Highly decorated ones are too sacred for battle and can also endanger the bearer by calling special attention to his status.


12. Backrest - the Plains family's easy chair.

13. Cradleboard - holds the fur-wrapped infant securely.

14. Woman's sewing bag - hide pouch holds awls, sinew thread, beads, quills, grasses, paints, small bones and ermine tails.

"It was just after a fast-moving thunderstorm passed through," he told OurAmazingPlanet. "There was a break in the clouds just as the sun was about to set behind the mountains. The break was large enough to allow the full sunlight through and the rainbow was incredibly bright, even more so with the dark storm surrounding us."

Pardo takes photographs mostly as a hobby, but has had his work included in several regional publications and Boys Life magazine.

To see a rainbow, you need two ingredients: sunlight and raindrops. When sunlight passes through a prism — in this case, drops of water — some of the light is refracted, or bent, more than other portions, based on the wavelength (or color) of the different parts of the light spectrum.

Light leaving the prism then spreads out into a continuous band of colors called a spectrum.

As in this case, sometimes a secondary bow forms outside the primary, giving the look of a double rainbow. It's always fainter and usually disappears more quickly than the primary. (Source)



Many cultures all over the world believed that rainbows led to God. Some tribes of North American Indians called the rainbow a "Pathway of Souls." In Japan, some refer to a rainbow as the "Floating Bridge of Heaven." In Hawaii and Polynesia, myths call the rainbow the "path to the upperworld." People in the Austrian Alps say righteous souls go to heaven via the rainbow. A myth of New Zealand said that dead chiefs went up a rainbow to the afterlife.

“Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue, and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true”

Copyright: Terje O. Nordvik

May the Rainbow Always touch your shoulder..

I am an old woman now. The buffaloes and black-tail deer are gone, and our Indian ways are almost gone. Sometimes I find it hard to believe that I ever lived them.

My little son grew up in the school. He can read books, and he owns cattle and has a farm. He is a leader among our Hidatsa people, helping teach them to follow the white man's road.

He is kind to me. We no longer live in an earth lodge, but in a house with chimneys, and my son's wife cooks by a shove.

But for me, I cannot forget our old ways.

Often in summer I rise at daybreak and steal out to the corn fields, and as I hoe the corn I sing to it, as we did when I was young. No one cares for our corn songs now.

Sometimes in the evening I sit, looking out on the big Missouri. The sun sets, and dusk steals over the water. In the shadows I see again to see our Indian village, with smoke curling upward from the earth lodges, and in the river's roar I hear the yells of the warriors, and the laughter of little children of old.

It is but an old woman's dream. Then I see but shadows and hear only the roar of the river, and tears come into my eyes. Our Indian life, I know, is gone forever.

Waheenee - Hidatsa (North Dakota) -Old Native American Woman


Facts about Native Americans

High suicide rate
In 2007, American Indian and Alaska Native youths, 15 to 24 years old, were committing suicide at a rate more than three times the national average for their age group of 13 per 100,000 people.

Alcohol & Native Americans
Higher rates of suicide have long been tied to alcoholism and drug use, depression and poverty that are prevalent in many American Indian communities.

A world of misunderstanding
It’s one of the most misrepresented and most misunderstood cultures in America.For centuries, American Indian culture has been attacked and exploited by our new dominant culture. Traditions, language and spiritual beliefs of so many of the American Indian nations are almost completely extinguished.

Health Concerns
30% of Native Americans have had a serious psychological distress, compared to 11% of the general population.

Native Americans & Education
Many U.S. teachers discuss Native American history and culture, especially at Thanksgiving time. Unfortunately, the portrayal of Native Americans is often stereotypical, inaccurate, or outdated.

Poverty
There are an estimated 2.5 million Native Americans in the U.S. About half of the Native American population lives on or near reservations; the other half lives in other rural areas and in urban areas.

Forced Relocation

Other moon names : Wolf Moon, Wild Moon, Quickening Moon, Solmonath Moon, Chaste Moon, Horning Moon, Red Moon, Big Winter Moon, Cleansing Moon.




1. The full moon occurs every 29.5 days; the duration of one complete lunar eclipse.

2. The chanes of being bitten by a dog are twice as high during a full moon according toa study at Bradford Royal Infirmary, which reviewed 1, 621 cases of dog bites between 1997 and 1999. However, a study at the University of Sydney in Australia concluded there was no identifiable relationship.

3. The only month that can occur without a full moon is February.

4. A full Moon is considered unlucky if it occurs on a Sunday but lucky on a Monday or moon day.


5. The honeymoon is named after the full moon in June. As it fell between the planting and harvesting of crops this was traditionally the best month to get married.

6. Renaissance artists traditionally depicted the moon as a crescent rather than in its full phase.

7. It is only during a full moon that the dark side of the moon - the hemisphere on the opposite side to the sun - is completely dark.


8. The female menstrual cycle has long been linked to the full phase of the moon. One theory is that prehistoric men were more likely to go hunting during their womenfolk's period because of taboos associated with blood. The most profitable time to hunt was during the full moon and the best way to convince the men to return with food was with the prospect of sex.

9. The full moon may appear round, but is actually shaped like an egg with the pointed end facing earth.

10. The moon is 10 times brighter when it is full than when it is in a quarter phase.
Source