Voice in box

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Ashaman is one who serves his people by acting as an intermediary to the spirit world. The claimed ability to communicate with the world beyond death is at least as old as the time when early humans first conceived the idea that some part of them somehow survived physical death and existed in some other place in spirit form. The grief that came with the sorrowful thought of losing all contact with a loved one was lessened by the assertion of a fellow tribesperson that he or she could still communicate with the spirit of the one who lay in the grave. Among early humans, those individuals who claimed to be able to visit the place of the dead were known as shamans, and the messages that they relayed from the spirit world were sought by the elders regarding every major tribal decision. Originally, the term "shaman" was applied to the spirit doctors and exorcists of the Tungus of Siberia, but in recent years the title has been applied as well to the medicine men and women of the various North American tribes who also serve as mediums, healers, and visionaries for their people. Many tribal traditionalists still revere the wisdom that is shared by those men and women who maintain the shamanic traditions and who travel to the other side in the company of their spirit helper.

o one appreciated the beauty of trees, and immortalized them in literature, more than J.R.R. Tolkien. “I am at home among the trees,” said Legolas the elf in The Fellowship of the Ring, but it might as well have been Tolkien himself speaking. Under a black pine in the Oxford Botanic Gardens, the author sat and penned part of his famous trilogy, inspired by the unique trees and plants surrounding him. Tolkien viewed trees as living, breathing creatures with humanlike characteristics, and it’s easy to see why. From Japan’s bamboo forests to the ponderosa pines of Utah, the world’s trees are as diverse and beautiful as its people. Here are the most unique trees and forests around the world that will give you a Tolkien-esque love for trees.

Various prehistoric peoples inhabited Nebraska as early as 8000 BCE. In the 19th century, semisedentary Native American peoples, most notably the Omaha, Oto, Pawnee, and Ponca, lived in eastern and central Nebraska. The west was the domain of the Brulé and Oglala Teton Sioux, but other tribes, such as the Arapaho, Comanche, and Cheyenne, also used the area from time to time. In the 1870s the Oto, Pawnee, and Ponca peoples, after being assigned to reservations in Nebraska, were removed to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). By 1878 several bands of the Teton Sioux (Lakota) had been relocated from northwestern Nebraska to reservations just over the border in Dakota Territory (now South Dakota).