Apparently my sighting on Sunday of the coati in Dos Cabezas Wildnerness caught the attention of several of my local nature-loving friends. I reported to Mike that I saw this strange animal that I thought at first was a mountain lion, but when I described to him that it was basically tan, with a dark, pointed snout, dark lower legs and a really long tail it kept to the ground, he exclaimed "That's a coati!"
I know from attending the Southwest Wings and Nature Festival here last September that the coatis are being monitored in the Huachucas because of their mysterious, dwindling masses. But I didn't think that the Dos Cabezas wilderness was also on the monitoring path. I also know that the Tucson Audubon Society wants people who spot a coati in southern Arizona to report any sightings, preferably with photos, to their website. The coati researcher volunteers for the Audubon society as well.
The Indian morters were also a hit. People wanted the coordinates to the sites. I will not post them here because the site was badly littered to begin with, with spraypainted rocks and beer cans around the stream.
Kevin wants to go back to Indian Bread Rocks PicNic area and explore the hills in greater detail. There's got to be more up in the mountain peaks that show old Indian dwellings. The hike won't be easy with the wet rocks.
I am really getting into my Native Peoples class and will start my fundamental research this weekend. (An interesting side note: The teacher and two of us students are from the Michigan-Indiana-Ohio triangle) My group of choice is the western Apache tribe in the White Mountains. That means I will have to drive up to the White Mountains and Fort Apache soon (poor me!) and talk to a few elders, record their conversations, and quote them verbatim for my ethnographic report. (If it turns out good enough, I'll post the report here)
This also gives me an excuse to travel more into Mexico now that I have a focus. The Southwestern Indians spread as far south as southern Sonora with the Seri tribes.
One of the students today at the high school turned out to be part Navajo, part Arapaho. She came up to me and told me I was the first White person she's met who's interested in learning more about our Native Americans. She told me of the discriminations she's seen toward the Native Americans all across the country, from Alaska where she also lived for a while, to this area and near the reservations.
"People think the Indians have it made with all the entitlements, but we don't!" I lived for a few years on a Rez and it was no fun!" she said, before thanking me for my sincere interest in the real American History that surrounds us here in Arizona.
"Imagine if a Native American were to write our history!" I told her. I know the results wouldn't be all too appreciative, that's for sure. History is always written by the victors, but it's the ones who suffer from defeats, repressions and annihilations who have always fascinated me the most.
The high school uses a history book by McDougal-Littrell called "The Americans," with several photos of famous Americans on the front cover: Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, Harry S Truman...but not one photo of a Native American.
http://www.vanishingspecieswildlife.com/animals/details.php/000029/Coatimundi/Nasua/nasua
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