Chahto is the Choctaw Word for "Drought"
For people who depend on the productivity of the land for their livelihood, drought is a fact of life. When drought gets bad, life may...
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Ian Thompson
Jul 18, 20227 min read
Forged in Heat
With hardly a cloud in the sky for the past month, the unstoppable summer sun has progressively dried out and heated up the ground. Then...
385 views1 comment
Ian Thompson
Jun 12, 20224 min read
Continuing an Ancient Harvest
It’s one of our favorite seasons at Nan Awaya Farm: the sand plum harvest is upon us! These colorful gems of bold, native flavor can’t...
440 views2 comments
Ian Thompson
May 29, 20226 min read
A Good Spirit Came to Visit Us
With COVID restrictions fully lifted, our work pace at Choctaw Nation has been frenetic this spring. That's left only a few hours...
228 views6 comments
Ian Thompson
Feb 21, 20226 min read
Our First Controlled Burns
Fire is one of the oldest and most effective tools that humans have for managing the land. The Indigenous peoples of North America began...
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Ian Thompson
Feb 5, 20224 min read
Hvshtula: The Reclining Sun
Our part of the world doesn't get winter weather every single year. Over the past couple of days, though, we've been blessed with ice,...
227 views4 comments
Ian Thompson
Jan 23, 20228 min read
The Extermination of the American Bison (almost)
Warning this post contains some graphic content- This photo was taken by LA Huffman in eastern Montana in 1880. It captures one of the...
1,202 views2 comments
Ian Thompson
Jan 3, 20226 min read
Practical Prairie Rehabilitation - Little Bluestem
After record-warm temperatures in December, we're finally enjoying our first taste of real winter weather this weekend. First thing this...
739 views4 comments
Ian Thompson
Nov 21, 20216 min read
Restoring Little Suns in Our Prairie Pastures
For several years now, we’ve been actively working to restore the native landscapes of Nan Awaya Farm. One of the things the experience...
389 views1 comment
Ian Thompson
Oct 30, 20219 min read
Braintanning a Buffalo Robe
A traditionally tanned buffalo robe is something pretty special. If any single thing can embody the connection between people, the...
2,646 views5 comments
Ian Thompson
Sep 26, 20214 min read
Cooking Choctaw Sassafras Dishes
The sassafras tree, kvfi in the Choctaw language, has been a part of the American landscape for a very long time. 65 million years ago,...
1,925 views4 comments
Ian Thompson
Sep 16, 20214 min read
Those Bad Buffalo Blues
It was a little bit like the plot of an Alfred Hitchcock movie... We use an electric fence to keep the herd buffalo on our farm. An...
227 views4 comments
Ian Thompson
Aug 16, 20216 min read
Code Red - Humanity
Gideon Lincecum was a naturalist, healer, and free-thinker. In 1819, he moved his family to Columbus, Mississippi, on the border of the...
221 views4 comments
Ian Thompson
Aug 4, 20213 min read
Chahta Nowvt Anya: The Choctaw Journey
The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma recently opened its cultural center in Durant. Through it, the Choctaw people completed a dream that...
444 views2 comments
Ian Thompson
Jun 14, 20213 min read
Taking Out the Trash - A Life-Affirming Experience?
From my earliest memory and again today, Sunday evening is the night to take out the trash. I've gotten to take out the trash while...
207 views1 comment
Ian Thompson
May 21, 20214 min read
It's Not Too Late
One of the joys of fall when I was growing up was getting to experience the monarch migration. With the first hint of cool in the air,...
137 views1 comment
Ian Thompson
Apr 21, 20214 min read
Electrify Us
Tomorrow is Earth Day! We'd like to honor the day by sharing our household's experience of trying something new in '21 that was a little...
115 views1 comment
Ian Thompson
Apr 2, 20215 min read
The Attack of the Killer Foots
Those of you who have been following our blog for a while know that Nan Awaya Farm is about more than raising buffalo. One of our goals...
241 views2 comments
Ian Thompson
Feb 16, 20214 min read
A Little Above Texas; a Little Below Zero
Almost every year as I was growing up, my family watched Holiday Inn. This 1942 film features Bing Crosby as a nightclub performer who...
127 views2 comments
Ian Thompson
Jan 30, 20217 min read
Prairie Connection Experiments
We've been silent for a little bit. This blog was temporarily interrupted by life at Nan Awaya Farmstead. In November, we helped run...
471 views2 comments
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