#native north america

[the-golden-vanity]

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A Kwakwaka’waka man in traditional sacred costume of an orca. Photographed by Franz Boas. Collection of the American Museum of Natural History.

[herpsandbirds]

Our Better Nature: Put the Brakes on Honey Bees – Our Future Depends on It

Honey bees are causing grave – and in some cases irreversible – harm to the environment.

In addition to being a reliable source of honey, not to mention personal satisfaction, backyard beekeeping can be a rich learning experience for the whole family. And yet at the same time, honey bees are causing grave – and in some cases irreversible – harm to the environment. It’s imperative that beekeepers learn about the threats to native pollinators posed by honey bees and actively work to mitigate the damage as much as possible. Just to be clear, honey bees are an invasive species whose population is burgeoning. They certainly don’t need our help to survive. It’s true they’re vital to industrial-scale agriculture like California’s almond farms, which are the largest in the world, and Florida’s citrus groves. Although honey bees are relatively poor pollinators, they’re the only one that can be transported in great numbers. Outside of the vast, sterile plantations of Big Ag, honey bees don’t measurably boost pollination rates, according to a multi-year Cornell University study. Led by Dr. Scott McArt, a bee specialist at Cornell’s Dyce Lab for Honey Bee Studies, the team concluded honey bees had an insignificant effect on pollination in nearly all of New York State’s apple orchards studied. The 110 species of wild bees the researchers cataloged on apple blossoms did the real work...

Read more:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2024/05/our-better-nature-put-the-brakes-on-honey-bees-our-future-depends-on-it

[snototter]

A pair of rosy faced lovebirds (Agapornis roseicollis) in Phoenix, Arizona, originally from Southwestern Africa

by R. Russell Beatson

[ostdrossel]

Like many, I use and love the Merlin app. Yesterday, it ID'd a Common Yellowthroat, and when I showed my husband, he was skeptical because tech can be unreliable and there are so many sounds out there. Luckily, the bird was kind enough to also visit the bird bath later 😁 Here's a little migration magic - first a White-crowned Sparrow and then a Common Yellowthroat!

[emerging-jew]

Okay here's my spicy take:

It's really convenient for white westerners, especially Americans, to have the stance that being indigenous expires a certain time after colonization and I think that stance isn't pushed back against nearly often enough. And to go a step further I think the take is itself a subtle act of colonization

[aisling-saoirse]

Growing Paw Paws from seed: 2024

Some of y'all may recall last year I made a Plant Profile post after finding my first Paw Paw (they don't really grow this far north in NJ so this was exciting). Well after eating the fruit I decided to see if I could propagate the seeds and I was very successful!

Below I'll describe my process and some tips, this was unconventional towards how I usually grow saplings but I was in my final year of a masters program, needed to be as cheap as possible, and this is probably easier for those of you in apartments

So you want to propagate paw paws? It's not hard it just requires a bit of understanding.

When I found my first Paw Paw I was on the University of Pennsylvania campus, I saw a tree in front of a multi-faith church and immediately recognized the fruit. My friends and I climbed up the branches to get some bigger fruits and then we basically ate them on a nearby bench.

Once I had the seeds (I started with 14, only 4 viable) I walked home and washed off any debris then I wrapped the seeds in a damp paper towel (wring out excess water) and placed them in a plastic bag in the fridge for 3ish months

Around February I decided to grow them, I had some extra cardboard pots I was starting oaks in (image 3: ps I hate these pots) and knew I could use this to to start the seeds, at the same time I asked a friend to grow paw paws so we had a diverse gene pool to produce fruit. Paw paws need deep pots because they develop a taproot that can easily reach 12" the first year, instead of buying multiple deep pots you can place disposable pots in a bigger container with soil. If you find like long/narrow containers those are your best option.

I used left over peatmoss (but loamy potting soil will be better) and placed them 1" deep each. I then cut off the bottoms of my small cardboard containers and placed those together in a deeper pot I had (image 4). You want to retain moisture, so also cover the pots in plastic wrap. Of course water enough to keep the soil moist that goes without saying.

Paw paws take about a month to germinate above the soil but still need the increased light levels. Keep an LED light on above it (these are very cheap to operate) They will start growing a taproot soon after you plant them and occasionally will break the surface, just try to keep it covered in dirt.

Once they appear above the surface (this was march-april for me), let them grow till they develop like 4-5 leaves before planting out. I kept them in my Frankenstein pots until about June when I had time to exchange with my friend (he grew like 18 with seeds from an online seller but stunted their taproots a bit).

Paw paws have a natural insecticide in their leaves, I didn't encounter any herbivory from both deer and insects but I left my best specimens in a sapling cage. I planted about 8 in my yard, all around 4 inches tall (image 5), in partial shade conditions. When you plant the sapling dig a little deeper than the taproot and leave soil around the taproot itself, it helps to have a deep trowel. For amendments, I mixed in richer compost soil with the native soil, but for a few I gave no amendment (I wanted to test if it made a big difference). Ultimately those which grew the most were in brighter conditions but they all did okay, my largest ended up being 15" (image 6) which is the same development as some nursery stock I've encountered for $165...

On a side note you're not supposed to move them once planted but I ended up having to do this with one. I did break the taproot in half, however this sapling still survived so these trees are a bit hardier than others have implied.

So, is this the best way to grow paw paws? No absolutely not. Is it cheap and basically using just garbage...yes! Try to grow your own :)

[mapsontheweb]

Native tribes of North America, Central America, and The Caribbean. 

Map by Michael Mcardle-Nakoma, 1996.

[jeannepompadour]

Photographs of men from the Assiniboine tribe;by Frank Rinehart;

Chief Yellow Boy giving a piece sign, 1890-1891

Four Bull and Chief Wets-It, 1898

[wiisagi-maiingan]

Just a tiny bit bitter that someone (jokingly) reblogged that post about plants and bugs to call me a spotted lantern fly when the post was originally because I was trying to look up wood violets and getting a bunch of pages about how to kill these lovely native wildflowers because they. . . look "bad" in the desolate wastelands that Americans call "yards."

I am fully in favor of culling invasive species (in a way that is quick and minimizes their suffering), but can we not just think about the implications with regards to how much of our world is seen as a pest to remove and destroy. Please. For me.

[countriesgame]

Please reblog for a bigger sample size!

If you have curiosities or facts about Canada you'd like to share, tell us and we'll reblog it!

[bugboy-behaviour]

‼️‼️URANIUM IS BEING ILLEGALLY TRANSPORTED ACROSS NATIVE LAND‼️‼️

[quiltofstars]

The Pleiades, M45 // mr.m.looks

All over the Earth, our ancestors told wonderful stories to explain how the Pleiades came to be in the sky. For the Kiowa people of North America, it happened something like this:

Long, long ago, some young women snuck away from camp one night to dance freely beneath the stars. It wasn’t long before some bears discovered them and chased them through the wilderness. Eventually, the girls found a tall rock and climbed it. The girls begged the spirits in the rock to save them. The rock heard their cries and grew taller until it became what is today known as Devils Tower. The maidens were transformed into the stars of the Pleiades, which may be seen hanging above the tower in mid-winter.

[bimdraws]

Turtle Island stands with Palestine 🇵🇸🌎

[na-bird-of-the-day]

BOTD: Red Avadavat

Photo: Hari K Patibanda

"Strikingly pretty small finch. Males are largely red and covered in white spots with dark wings and tail. Females are gray with a rufous rump. Both sexes have a red beak. Gives a very musical song a high 'teei' call. Found in grassy areas close to water and often near human habitation, particularly areas with wet rice paddies."

- eBird

[ostdrossel]

Winter has returned with quite a bit of snow this morning, and it was awesome watching the Cardinal share the food bowl with a cheeky American Tree Sparrow and some Juncos.