The Sacred Calf Pipe Bundle: It’s Effect on the Present Teton Dakota*

Abstract

In the legends of the Teton Dakota the White Buffalo Calf Maiden, as a messenger from Wakan Tanka, gave the people the Sacred Calf Pipe Bundle. This bundle became the center of the Teton’s religious beliefs, for with the bundle the Calf Maiden also gave the people certain religious ceremonies. Chief among these were the Sun Dance, the Hunkalowanpi and the Spirit-keeping ritual. From the old days to the present this bundle has been held in great reverence. To date there have been 11 keepers of the bundle, the present keeper being a 15 year old boy. To some extent the attitudes and views toward the old religion have been modified by the present generation. However, through the efforts of certain individuals a reawakening of the people towards things “Indian” is taking place. One example is a new course of studies in some Indian schools on “How to be a Modern Indian.” A second is the proposed building of a new Catholic church at Pine Ridge, South Dakota, in the image of a tipi decorated with the symbols and meanings of the old Teton religion, and a third is the use of the “peace pipe” in Catholic services.     

Resistance to recombinant stem rust race TPPKC in hard red spring wheat

The wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) stem rust (Puccinia graminis Pers.:Pers. f.sp. tritici Eriks. and Henn.) resistance gene SrWld1 conditions resistance to all North American stem rust races and is an important gene in hard red spring (HRS) wheat cultivars. A sexually recombined race having virulence to SrWld1 was isolated in the 1980s. Our objective was to determine the genetics of resistance to the race. The recombinant race was tested with the set of stem rust differentials and with a set of 36 HRS and 6 durum cultivars. Chromosomal location studies in cultivars Len, Coteau, and Stoa were completed using aneuploid analysis, molecular markers, and allelism tests. Stem rust differential tests coded the race as TPPKC, indicating it differed from TPMKC by having added virulence on Sr30 as well as SrWld1. Genes effective against TPPKC were Sr6, Sr9a, Sr9b, Sr13, Sr24, Sr31, and Sr38. Genetic studies of resistance to TPPKC indicated that Len, Coteau, and Stoa likely carried Sr9b, that Coteau and Stoa carried Sr6, and Stoa carried Sr24. Tests of HRS and durum cultivars indicated that five HRS and one durum cultivar were susceptible to TPPKC. Susceptible HRS cultivars were postulated to have SrWld1 as their major stem rust resistance gene. Divide, the susceptible durum cultivar, was postulated to lack Sr13. We concluded that although TPPKC does not constitute a threat similar to TTKSK and its variants, some cultivars would be lost from production if TPPKC became established in the field.     

The Kobold Site, 24BH406: A Post-Althithermal Record of Buffalo-Jumping for The Northwestern Plains

Abstract

The Kobold Site, 24BH406, contained four components of which the oldest is believed to be an altithermal occupation, Buffalo jumping was not occurring at this time, The other three components produced evidence of buffalo jumping beginning with the early post-altithermal and ending just prior to historic times.     

The Oglala (Teton Dakota) Sun Dance: Vissicitudes of its Structures and Functions

Abstract

The structure and function of the traditional Oglala Dakota Sun Dance is compared with modern versions of the dance performed at Pine Ridge, South Dakota.     

Winter gas exchange between the atmosphere and snow-covered soils on Niwot Ridge,Colorado, USA

Background: There is a growing interest in understanding the gas exchange between the atmosphere and seasonally snow-covered regions, especially in light of projections that climate change will alter the timing and extent of seasonal snow cover. In snow-covered ecosystems, gas fluxes are due both to microbial activity in the snow-covered soils and to chemical and physical reactions with the various gases and/or dissolved constituents in the snowpack. Niwot Ridge, in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, has one of the most extensive sets of measurements of winter gas exchange globally.

Aims: Our goal was to examine the temporal patterns and environmental controls on Niwot Ridge of gas fluxes for gases with different sources and sinks.

Methods: Here, we review the concentrations and fluxes that have been measured for carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane, nitrogen oxides, ozone, gaseous elemental mercury and volatile organic carbon compounds.

Results and Conclusions: We looked for similarities and differences among the gases, but in many cases, the origin, fate and controls of these fluxes still need to be determined. However, we believe that many of the biologically driven reactions are the result of exponential growth of a winter microbial community during the long period of stable environmental conditions under the seasonal snowpack.     

Contrasting long-term alpine and subalpine precipitation trends in a mid-latitude North American mountain system,Colorado Front Range,USA

Background: Long-term climate trends in mountain systems often vary strongly with elevation.

Aims: To evaluate elevation dependence in long-term precipitation trends in subalpine forest and alpine tundra zones of a mid-continental, mid-latitude North American mountain system and to relate such dependence to atmospheric circulation patterns.

Methods: We contrasted 59-year (1952–2010) precipitation records of two high-elevation climate stations on Niwot Ridge, Colorado Front Range, Rocky Mountains, USA. The sites, one in forest (3022 m a.s.l.) and the other in alpine tundra (3739 m), are closely located (within 7 km horizontally, ca. 700 m vertically), but differ with respect to proximity to the mountain-system crest (the Continental Divide).

Results: The sites exhibited significant differences in annual and seasonal precipitation trends, which depended strongly on their elevation and distance from the Continental Divide. Annual precipitation increased by 60 mm (+6%) per decade at the alpine site, with no significant change at the subalpine site. Seasonally, trends at the alpine site were dominated by increases in winter, which we suggest resulted from an increase in orographically generated precipitation over the Divide, driven by upper-air (700 hPa) north-westerly flow. Such a change was not evident at the subalpine site, which is less affected by orographic precipitation on north-westerly flow.

Conclusions: Elevation dependence in precipitation trends appears to have arisen from a change in upper-air flow from predominantly south-westerly to north-westerly. Dependence of precipitation trends on topographic position and season has complex implications for the ecology and hydrology of Niwot Ridge and adjacent watersheds, involving interactions among physical processes (e.g. snowpack dynamics) and biotic responses (e.g. in phenologies and ecosystem productivity).     

Nonlinear diffusion in metabolic systems

Some general properties of the solution of the diffusion equation are deduced for the steady-state, spherically symmetric system. On the basis of these developments some results of N. Rashevsky (Bull. Math. Biophysics,11, 15, 1949) are discussed and the results of a previous investigation (Hearon,Bull. Math. Biophysics,12, 135, 1950b) are extended to more general conditions. In particular these extensions apply to the flow of a soluteagainst its concentration gradient, the nonzero gradient of an inert metabolite, and theaccumulation or exclusion of an inert metabolite in a metabolic system. A portion of this work was performed while the author was a research participant, Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies, assigned to the Mathematics Panel, Oak Ridge National Laboratory.     

The Fire Cloud Site (39BF237), Buffalo County,South Dakota

Abstract

A bottle-necked cache pit was excavated near Old Fort Thompson, Buffalo County, South Dakota in June of 1955 by a University of Kansas field party as part of a non-reservoir salvage project.

The site is interesting due to the presence of three variants of Talking Crow Straight Rim pottery apparently unreported up to this time. These consist of a square orifice vessel, a vessel incorporating what most closely resembles Stanley Tool Impressed incised lip decoration, and a vessel bearing three bands of differing design motifs on the lip and upper rim exterior.

This site is tentatively assigned to the Fort Thompson focus of the Pahuk aspect. It probably dates to the first half of the 18th century.     

A Preliminary Report on Two Sites at Piney Creek,Wyoming 48J03Ll and 48J031

Abstract

During the summer of 1964, the University of Wyoming and the Wyoming Archaeological Society conducted exploratory excavations in two sites near Buffalo, Wyoming. Site 48J03ll consists of a number of stone circles and is apparently a camp site and site 48J0312 is a bison kill and butchering site. Artifact assemblages suggest an affiliation with late prehistoric and early historic sites in the Yellowstone River drainage.     

Fluxes of energy,water, and carbon dioxide from mountain ecosystems at Niwot Ridge,Colorado

Background: The eddy covariance (EC) technique provides a direct measure of water vapour and carbon dioxide fluxes between ecosystems and the atmosphere.

Aims: This review article highlights the findings of various studies that have integrated EC observations into basic meteorological, hydrological and ecological research questions in two ecosystems near Niwot Ridge, Colorado, and synthesises these studies into a catchment-scale model of water and carbon cycling, within the context of regional disturbance and environmental change.

Methods: EC was implemented continuously over subalpine forest and alpine tundra vegetation at Niwot Ridge, and resulting data were compared with discrete measurements and modelling studies.

Results: Sensible heat fluxes were generally in excess of latent heat fluxes, indicating that the forest and tundra ecosystems were moisture limited. Snow cover regulated the annual sum of primary productivity in the forest, and beneath-snow respiration represented a significant portion of ecosystem respiration at both locations.

Conclusions: Changes in the magnitude, timing, or spatial distribution of snow are likely to have the greatest impact on ecological processes in these semi-arid mountain catchments, but possibly in compensatory ways. Ultimately, the degree to which net carbon losses from alpine tundra offset forest carbon sequestration will determine the future magnitude of the Western United States carbon sink.     

Records of fishes from the West Norfolk Ridge,north-west of New Zealand

Abstract

A total of 89 species of elasmobranch and teleost fish was recorded from the West Norfolk Ridge in 1986. Between 50 and 60 of these have not previously been reported from the area. Fish species were caught in bottom trawls at depths between 100 m and 1100 m, principally on the Wanganella Bank. Depth distribution is discussed. Species composition is very similar to that of northern New Zealand.     

The ‘teflon basin’ myth: hydrology and hydrochemistry of a seasonally snow-covered catchment

Background: Snow and ice melt provide sensitive indicators of climate change and serve as the primary source of stream flow in alpine basins.

Aims: We synthesise the results of hydrological and hydrochemical studies during the period 1995–2014, building on a long history of earlier work focused on snow and water on Niwot Ridge and the adjacent Green Lakes Valley (GLV), which is part of the Niwot Ridge Long Term Ecological Research site (NWT LTER).

Methods: These studies are discussed in the context of how snow, snowmelt and runoff reflect changing local climate. We review recent results of snow, snowmelt, hydrology and hydrochemistry from the plot to the basin scale, utilising new tools such as continuous global positioning system (GPS) measurements of snow depth, along with remotely-sensed measurements of snow-covered area and melt, combined with long-term measurements of snow properties, discharge and solute and isotopic content of water.

Results and Conclusions: Surface–groundwater interactions are important components of water quantity and quality in alpine basins. Some or most snowmelt infiltrates underlying soils and bedrock, transporting soil and bedrock products to surface waters. Infiltrating snowmelt, along with increased melt of stored ice, increases the hydrologic connectivity between the terrestrial and aquatic systems. Alpine basins are being impacted by increases in atmospheric nitrogen deposition, which has caused changes in soil microbial processes such as nitrification. Nitrate, dissolved organic carbon and dissolved organic nitrogen are thus flushed from soils and talus to streams. Our long-term results show that alpine catchments, such as Green Lake 4 at NWT LTER+, have the greatest sensitivity and least resilience to climate warming, with any warming leading to increased water yields.     

First report of powdery mildew caused by Podosphaera xanthii on Luffa acutangula in Odisha State,India

Abstract

Ridge gourd (Luffa acutangula) is an herbaceous perennial twining vine cultivated globally as vegetable and medicinal plant. During October to January in 2014 and 2015, 40% powdery mildew disease incidence was observed in different areas of Odisha state, India. The pathogenicity experiments confirmed the powdery mildew disease symptoms on artificially inoculated L. acutangula seedlings. Causal organism was identified as Podosphaera xanthii on the basis of morphological and molecular studies. This is the first report of powdery mildew disease on L. acutangula caused by P. xanthii.     

The Sister’s Hill Site And Its Bearing On The Wyoming Postglacial Alluvial Chronology

Abstract

Alluvial sediments exposed at the Sister’s Hill Site near Buffalo, Johnson County, Wyoming shed new light on the stratigraphy of the Ucros s and Kaycee formations and reveal that another stratigraphic unit occurs between these formations in some places. At the Sister’s Hill Site, Hell Gap artifacts occur in the lower part of the new unit and in association with a Carbon-14 date of 9650 B. P.     

Cryosphere: ice on Niwot Ridge and in the Green Lakes Valley,Colorado Front Range

Background: Subsurface ice preserved as ice lenses and within rock glaciers as well as glacial and lake ice provides sensitive indicators of climate change and serve as a late-season source of meltwater.

Aims: We synthesise the results of geomorphological, geophysical and geochemical studies during the period of 1995–2014, building on a long history of earlier work focused on ice and permafrost studies on Niwot Ridge and the adjacent Green Lakes Valley (GLV), which is part of the Niwot Ridge Long Term Ecological Research Site.

Methods: These studies are discussed in the context of how bodies of ice and rock glaciers reflect changing local climate. We review recent results from geophysical investigations (resistivity, seismic refraction and ground-penetrating radar) of the shallow subsurface, ongoing monitoring of the Arikaree Glacier, three rock glaciers and lake ice in the GLV, and interpretations of how subsurface ice melt regulates the flow and chemistry of alpine surface water after seasonal snowfields melt.

Results and conclusions: Permafrost conditions reported from Niwot Ridge in the 1970s are generally absent today, but ice lenses form and melt seasonally. Ice is present permanently within the Green Lakes 5 rock glacier and at nearby favourable sites. The Arikaree Glacier has shown a marked decline in cumulative mass balance during the past 12 years after a 30-year period when net mass balance was ca. 0. Duration of seasonal lake ice increases with elevation in GLV, but duration has decreased at all seven lakes that have been monitored during the last three decades. This decrease has been most marked at the lowest elevation where it amounted to a reduction of about 1 d year^?1 and least at Green Lake 5 where the loss has been at a rate of 0.5 d year^?1. Surface temperature measurements from rock glaciers have not shown strong trends during the past 15 years. It has been suggested that almost all of the 2.5-mm year^?1 increase in stream discharge from the upper GLV in September and October has been derived from melting of subsurface ice.     

Comments on the approximate solution of the diffusion equation: II

On the basis of a previous general formulation (Bull. Math. Biophysics,15, 21–29, 1953a) a discussion is given of the error in the approximation method of N. Rashevsky. This error, inherent in the method when the metabolic rate is different at each point in the cell, is discussed in detail and numerical values are presented for two particular cases: the rate proportional to the concentration and the rate a prescribed function of the spatial coordinates. It is shown that the formulation for the first case also applies to several other cases, that the error is negligible provided the rate is sufficiently small, and that the error is fairly sensitive to the cell size. If the rate depends upon the coordinatesalone a small rate is not sufficient to insure a negligible error. The relations between the exact method, the standard approximate method, an earlier approximate method (Physics,7 260, 1936), and a more recent refinement (Bull. Math. Biophysics,10, 201, 1948) of the standard method are discussed. This work was performed while the author was a research participant, Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies, assigned to the Mathematics Panel, Oak Ridge National Laboratory.     

At-sea surveys confirm a North Atlantic biodiversity hotspot

Capsule A number of tracking studies have shown an area of the North Atlantic, south of the Charlie-Gibbs Fracture Zone, to be an important overwintering location for seabirds. We conducted seabird observations along a trans-Atlantic transect from Ireland to Canada in April 2014 to test the hypothesis that seabird species richness and abundance will peak in the area of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. At-sea survey results agreed with previous tracking studies, highlighting the importance of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge area for seabirds.     

A Rock Alignment in the Colorado Front Range

Abstract

Rock alignments of various sorts are found at high altitudes in the Front Range of northcentral Colorado. An example on Trail Ridge in Rocky Mountain National Park consists of a linear arrangement of rocks of unknown function. Somewhat similar structures found elsewhere in northwestern America are believed to be for ceremonial purposes, and this also may be true of the Colorado examples.     

Lakota Sioux Terms for White and Negro

Abstract

The primary concern herein is to expose the suggested etymologies and meanings of the terms the Sioux employ to discuss members of the white and black races. This paper deals with the Oglala Sioux Indians of South Dakota, primarily current Lakota speakers of Pine Ridge and their ancestors over the past three hundred years.