Sequoyah Indians

Sequoyah is celebrated as an illiterate Indian genius who, solely from the resources of his mind, endowed a whole tribe with learning; the only man in history to conceive and perfect in its entirety an alphabet or syllabary. He was born in the Cherokee village of Tuskegee in Tennessee, near Fort Loudon on the Tennessee River, about five miles from the sacred or capital town of Echota. Little is known of his early life, though it is well established that he grew up in the tribe unacquainted with English or civilized arts. He was a craftsman in silver work, an ingenious natural mechanic, whose inventive powers had scope for development in consequence of an affliction to one of his legs that rendered him a cripple for life. In young manhood he removed from the Overhills towns to Willstown in the present State of Alabama.Sequoyah, whose English name was George Guess later spelled Gist, was a soldier in the War of 1812 against the hostile Creek Indians. On March 27, 1814 his regiment took part in the famous Battle of the Horseshoe that inflicted a decisive defeat on the Creeks. Soon after the opening of the nineteenth century, Sequoyah began to realize the magic of writing. He and other Indians at the time, who occasionally saw samples of writing and printing, called these mysterious pages the white man’s "talking leaf". Sequoyah began to dream hazily about an Indian "talking leaf"; he experimented aimlessly at first, but gradually his conception took practical shape. This was slow and laborious work for an untutored Cherokee, and to make his efforts even more difficult, he faced ridicule and menace from his fellow warrior, who accused him of dealing in a sinister and black art. Even though his people one of the Five Civilized Nations had already attained a high stage of pastoral civilization, the significance of Sequoyah’s persistent indoor study was a bit too much for them readily to understand.Finally, after twelve years of labor and discouragement, he completed his syllabary, composed of eighty-five symbols, each representing a sound in the Cherokee spoken language. The simplicity of the syllabary and its easy adaptability to the speech and thought of the Cherokees enabled many of his people to master it in a few days. The Indian nation was practically made literate within a few months. Sequoyah, in known to have taught in the area for years after his mother took up residence in Willstown, Alabama during the movement of the Cherokee Nation to Oklahoma. There is a historical marker in Valley Head, only a few miles from Sequoyah Caverns, where it is known he taught his alphabet under a large oak tree and a marker located in the Fort Payne Union Park.Sequoyah traveled much between his people who had relocated in the West and those still in the East. In 1843 Sequoyah departed for the Mexico territory (now Texas) in order to visit with a band of Cherokees who had settled there. While on this visit he became ill and died. While his grave has never been authentically located, his memory will last forever through his syllabary and through this learning and culture of a fine body of Americans, the Cherokee people.

I'm Thankful For...

The things I'm thankful for, The food my mom cooks it's really god, The love from my sister, The love from my mother, The love from my father, The love from my grandparent, The love from my aunts & uncles, My cats Laz, Nemo, and Ares, All of the toys in my toats room other places, and my house. Now some small things I am thankful are, My Playstation, My 45 inch tv, my computer, My full size bed, The air that I breath, the trees, the grass, the flowers, my dresser, my jewerly, my clothes, heat, food, the sun, the solar system, and the earth. Here are some things (food wise) that m thankful for, I am thankful for hot dogs, I am thankful for fries, Spaghetti, Hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chicken noodle soup, vegtable soup, chips, turkey, ham, mashed potatos, fried potatos, potatos, penne, develed eggs, pepperoni rolls, pepperoni, rolls, noodles cheese juice, milk, corn, green beans, peaches, oranges, apples, pinapples, bacon, eggs, pancakes, hashbrowns, sausage, steak, garlic bread, pasta, porkchops, cheesy hashbrowns,cheesy potatos, There are some of the foods that I am thankful for, I am thankful for a lot of things. I hope a have a great Thanksgiving my mom is making some delicious food she's making turkey, pumpkin pie, and I think shes also making some corn. I hope my mom, dad, sister, my three brothers, grandparents, and aunts and uncles have a great thanksgiving and I hope they eat good to. I am also thankful for all the shops that sell clothes, tools, food,and lots of all of the other things we need/want in life. I am thankful for my grandma linda fotr helping me reorganize my room, I am also thankful for Target and Lowes for providing the things we needed to get reorganized. I am thankful for my mom, dad, and sister, for giving me the love that I needed to grow up. I am thankful for all the toys I have they've helped me when I was bored, I am thankful for school that gave me a chance to learn and one day help me become a doctor, I am thankful for doctors who help us stay heathy and help us if we need surgery, I am thankful for the mail corporation making us able to letters, and packages to loved ones, and friends, I am thankful for belts helping us keep our pants up and making sure they do not fall dowm, I am thankful for the soldies in the army/marine who fight to keep our freedom, I am thankful for the president helping us keep our country not in a horrible position, I am thankful for jobs who give people money for there families to eat and have a house, I am thankful for mattresses for letting us enjoy their comfort and be able to sleep peacfully, I am thankful for pillows letting us rest are heads softly while we sleep, But mostly I am thankful for my family I LOVE YOU MOMMY DADDY AND ALY!

Cherokee Indians

The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family. In the 19th century, historians and ethnographers recorded their oral tradition that told of the tribe having migrated south in ancient times from the Great Lakes region, where other Iroquoian-speaking peoples were located. They began to have contact with European traders in the 18th century. In the 19th century, white settlers in the United States called the Cherokee one of the "Five Civilized Tribes", because they had assimilated numerous cultural and technological practices of European American settlers. The Cherokee were one of the first, if not the first, major non-European ethnic group to become U.S. citizens. Article 8 in the 1817 treaty with the Cherokee stated Cherokees may wish to become citizen of the United States. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, the Cherokee Nation has more than 300,000 members, the largest of the 565 federally recognized Native American tribes in the United States.Of the three federally recognized Cherokee tribes, the Cherokee Nation and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians have headquarters in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. The UKB are mostly descendants of "Old Settlers", Cherokee who migrated to Arkansas and Oklahoma about 1817. The Cherokee Nation are related to the people who were forcibly relocated there in the 1830s under the Indian Removal Act. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is located on the Qualla Boundary in western North Carolina. In addition, there are Cherokee bands in the Southeast that are recognized as tribes by state governments, such as the Echota Cherokee Tribe of Alabama, but not the U.S. federal government.There are two prevailing views about Cherokee origins. One is that the Cherokee, an Iroquoian-speaking people, are relative latecomers to Southern Appalachia, who may have migrated in late prehistoric times from northern areas, the traditional territory of the later Haudenosaunee five nations and other Iroquoian-speaking peoples. Researchers in the 19th century recorded conversations with elders who recounted an oral tradition of the Cherokee people's migrating south from the Great Lakes region in ancient times. The other theory, which is disputed by academic specialists, is that the Cherokee had been in the Southeast for thousands of years. There is no archeological evidence for this. Some traditionalists, historians and archaeologists believe that the Cherokee did not come to Appalachia until the 15th century or later. They may have migrated from the north and moved south into Muscogee Creek territory and settled at the sites of mounds built by the Mississippian culture. During early research, archeologists had mistakenly attributed several Mississippian culture sites to the Cherokee, including Moundville and Etowah Mounds. Late 20th-century studies have shown conclusively instead that the weight of archeological evidence at the sites shows they are unquestionably related to ancestors of Muskogean peoples rather than to the Cherokee. Pre-contact Cherokee are considered to be part of the later Pisgah Phase of Southern Appalachia, which lasted from circa 1000 to 1500. Despite the consensus among most specialists in Southeast archeology and anthropology, some scholars contend that ancestors of the Cherokee people lived in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee for a far longer period of time. During the late Archaic and Woodland Period, Indians in the region began to cultivate plants such as marsh elder, lambsquarters, pigweed, sunflowers and some native squash. People created new art forms such as shell gorgets, adopted new technologies, and followed an elaborate cycle of religious ceremonies. During the Mississippian Culture-period, local women developed a new variety of maize called eastern flint. It closely resembled modern corn and produced larger crops. The successful cultivation of corn surpluses allowed the rise of larger, more complex chiefdoms with several villages and concentrated populations during this period. Corn became celebrated among numerous peoples in religious ceremonies, especially the Green Corn Ceremony.

Raccoons

The raccoon, sometimes spelled racoon, also known as the common raccoon, North American raccoon, northern raccoon and colloquially as coon, is a medium-sized mammal native to North America. The raccoon is the largest of the procyonid family, having a body length of 40 to 70 cm (16 to 28 in) and a body weight of 3.5 to 9 kg (8 to 20 lb). Its grayish coat mostly consists of dense underfur which insulates against cold weather. Two of the raccoon's most distinctive features are its extremely dexterous front paws and its facial mask, which are themes in the mythology of several Native American tribes. Raccoons are noted for their intelligence, with studies showing that they are able to remember the solution to tasks up to three years later. The diet of the omnivorous raccoon, which is usually nocturnal, consists of about 40% invertebrates, 33% plant foods, and 27% vertebrates. The original habitats of the raccoon are deciduous and mixed forests, but due to their adaptability they have extended their range to mountainous areas, coastal marshes, and urban areas, where some homeowners consider them to be pests. As a result of escapes and deliberate introductions in the mid-20th century, raccoons are now also distributed across the European mainland, the Caucasus region and Japan. Though previously thought to be solitary, there is now evidence that raccoons engage in gender-specific social behavior. Related females often share a common area, while unrelated males live together in groups of up to four animals to maintain their positions against foreign males during the mating season, and other potential invaders. Home range sizes vary anywhere from 3 hectares (7 acres) for females in cities to 50 km2 (20 sq mi) for males in prairies. After a gestation period of about 65 days, two to five young, known as "kits", are born in spring. The kits are subsequently raised by their mother until dispersion in late fall. Although captive raccoons have been known to live over 20 years, their average life expectancy in the wild is only 1.8 to 3.1 years. In many areas, hunting and vehicular injury are the two most common causes of death.Based on fossil evidence from France and Germany, the first known members of the family Procyonidae lived in Europe in the late Oligocene about 25 million years ago.[16] Similar tooth and skull structures suggest procyonids and weasels share a common ancestor, but molecular analysis indicates a closer relationship between raccoons and bears. After the then-existing species crossed the Bering Strait at least six million years later, the center of its distribution was probably in Central America. Coatis (Nasua and Nasuella) and raccoons (Procyon) have been considered to share common descent from a species in the genus Paranasua present between 5.2 and 6.0 million years ago. This assumption, based on morphological comparisons of fossils, conflicts with a 2006 genetic analysis which indicates raccoons are more closely related to ringtails. Unlike other procyonids, such as the crab-eating raccoon (Procyon cancrivorus), the ancestors of the common raccoon left tropical and subtropical areas and migrated farther north about 2.5 million years ago, in a migration that has been confirmed by the discovery of fossils in the Great Plains dating back to the middle of the Pliocene.

Ocelot

The ocelot, also known as the dwarf leopard, is a wild cat distributed extensively over South America, Central America, and Mexico. They have been reported as far north as Texas, and as far east as Trinidad and Barbados in the Caribbean. North of Mexico, they are found regularly only in the extreme southern part of Texas, although there are rare sightings in southern Arizona. The ocelot is similar in appearance to a domestic cat. Its fur resembles that of a clouded leopard or jaguar and was once regarded as particularly valuable. As a result, hundreds of thousands of ocelots were once killed for their fur. The feline was classified a "vulnerable" endangered species from 1972 until 1996, and is now rated "least concern" by the 2008 IUCN Red List. The ocelot ranges from 68 to 100 centimetres (27 to 39 in) in length, plus 26 to 45 centimeters (10 to 18 in) in tail length, and typically weighs 8 to 18 kilograms (18 to 40 lb), although much larger individuals have occasionally been recorded, making it the largest of the generally dainty Leopardus wild cat genus. It has sleek, smooth fur, rounded ears and relatively large front paws. While similar in appearance to the oncilla and margay, which inhabit the same region, the ocelot is larger.The coat pattern of ocelots can vary, being anything from cream to reddish-brown in color, or sometimes grayish, and marked with black rosettes. In many individuals, some of the spots, especially on the back, blend together to form irregular curved stripes or bands. The fur is short, and paler than the rest of the coat beneath. There are also single white spots, called ocelli, on the backs of the ears. Two black stripes line both sides of the face, and the long tail is banded by black.The ocelot is mostly nocturnal and very territorial. It will fight fiercely, sometimes to the death, in territorial disputes. In addition, the cat marks its territory with urine. Like most felines, it is solitary, usually meeting only to mate. However, during the day it rests in trees or other dense foliage, and will occasionally share its spot with another ocelot of the same sex. Males occupy territories of 3.5 to 46 square kilometers (1.4 to 18 sq mi), while females occupy smaller, non-overlapping territories of 0.8 to 15 square kilometers (0.31 to 5.8 sq mi). Territories are marked by urine spraying and by leaving feces in prominent locations, sometimes favoring particular latrine sites. Ocelots hunt over a range of 18 km2 (6.9 sq mi), taking mostly small animals, including mammals, lizards, turtles, and frogs, crabs, birds, and fish. Almost all of the prey that the ocelot hunts is far smaller than itself, with rodents, rabbits, and opossums forming the largest part of the diet. Studies suggest that it follows and finds prey via odor trails, but the ocelot also has very good vision, including night vision.Ocelots typically breed only once every other year, although the female may mate again shortly after losing a litter. Mating can occur at any time of year, and estrus lasts from seven to ten days. After mating, the female will find a den in a cave in a rocky bluff, a hollow tree, or a dense (preferably thorny) thicket. Gestation lasts 79 to 82 days, and usually results in the birth of only a single kitten, with its eyes closed and a thin covering of hair. Litters of two or three kittens also occur, but are less common. The small litter size and relative infrequency of breeding make the ocelot particularly vulnerable to population loss. Compared with other small cats, ocelot kittens grow quite slowly. They weigh around 250 grams (8.8 oz) at birth, and do not open their eyes for 15 to 18 days. They begin to leave the den at three months, but remain with their mother for up to two years, before dispersing to establish their own territory. Ocelots live for up to 20 years in captivity.Like many wild cats, they are occasionally kept as pets. Salvador Dalí frequently traveled with his pet ocelot Babou, even bringing it aboard the luxury ocean liner, SS France. Musician Gram Parsons kept an ocelot as a pet in the back yard swimming pool area of his family's Winter Haven, Florida, home during his teens, in the mid-1960s. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped animals and often depicted the ocelot in their art.

Stuff Happining on Io

A team of SETI astronomers have provided it's possible to see volcanic eruptions on Io a moon of Jupiter from our perch on Earth hundreds of millions of miles away. Based on 44 nights of telescope observations, the group from the SETI Institute's Carl Sagan Center showed it is possible to see fiery volcanoes spewing on Io (which is also known as Jupiter's "Pizza Moon" for that reason). They can see features as small as 62 miles (100 kilometers) across using a particular telescope technique. This means we don't necessarily need a spacecraft to watch over Io's volcanoes. That's an important finding considering there won't be another long-term mission at Jupiter until the 2030s, said SETI's Franck Marchis, who led the team. "We are not going to have a (Jupiter) space mission for several years," said Marchis, the senior planetary astronomer of the Carl Sagan Center. Amazing Photos: Jupiter's Volcanic Moon Io. "If we want to continue to invest time in observing volcanic activity, we need to focus on ground-based telescopes. It's not a community that has been used to it ... our goal is really to motivate them to think about it." Marchis and his team used a technique called adaptive optics. It's a technology that helps smooth out blurs that conventional telescopes see when trying to take pictures through the turbulent atmosphere of Earth. A telescope, fitted with a distortable mirror, is hooked up to the adaptive optics system. As the light bends in the atmosphere, a sensor measures the distortions with the assistance of a computer, which makes calculations.The best systems today can make 1,000 calculations per seconsd, Marchis said, and that figure is improving all the time. As the number of calculations increases, so does the accuracy. It makes the image look sharper. In Marchis' case, it allowed his team to track the Tvashtar volcano's eruption in 2006-7 at the same time as the New Horizons spacecraft saw it. (New Horizons is en route to Pluto and will arrive in 2015.) Io isn't the only astronomical target that benefits from adaptive optics. The system has also been used to find planets around distant stars, to image cracks on Europa, and to give a more precise look at Jupiter's atmosphere. I think it is cool that they found activity happening on Io. And it does look like a pizza a pepperoni pizza to be specific. On the other hand I had no idea that Io had stuff happening on it it's pretty cool that it does because someday Io might explode who knows. And I also dont think it wasnt a good idea not to have a jupiter space muission they might have found a little bit of life who knows what they would have found. I would also hate to be on Io with the valconos acting up. Anyways I hope they fid more stuff happining on Io cause if they do I will probibly be writing a blog about it. Io is an amazing moon and I hope it doe something more soon.

History of the Battery

Batteries have been around longer than you may think. In 1938, archaeologist Wilhelm Konig discovered some peculiar clay pots while digging at Khujut Rabu, just outside of present-day Baghdad, Iraq. The jars, which measure approximately 5 inches (12.7 centimeters) long, contained an iron rod encased in copper and dated from about 200 B.C. Tests suggested that the vessels had once been filled with an acidic substance like vinegar or wine, leading Konig to believe that these vessels were ancient batteries. Since this discovery, scholars have produced replicas of the pots that are in fact capable of producing an electric charge. These "Baghdad batteries" may have been used for religious rituals, medicinal purposes, or even electroplating. In 1799, Italian physicist Alessandro Volta created the first battery by stacking alternating layers of zinc, brine-soaked pasteboard or cloth, and silver. This arrangement, called a voltaic pile, was not the first device to create electricity, but it was the first to emit a steady, lasting current. However, there were some drawbacks to Volta's invention. The height at which the layers could be stacked was limited because the weight of the pile would squeeze the brine out of the pasteboard or cloth. The metal discs also tended to corrode quickly, shortening the life of the battery. Despite these shortcomings, the SI unit of electromotive force is now called a volt in honor of Volta's achievement. The next breakthrough in battery technology came in 1836 when English chemist John Frederick Daniell invented the Daniell cell. In this early battery, a copper plate was placed at the bottom of a glass jar and a copper sulfate solution was poured over the plate to half-fill the jar. Then the zinc plate was hung in the jar, and a zinc sulfate solution was added. Because copper sulfate is denser than zinc sulfate, the zinc solution floated to the top of the copper solution and surrounded the zinc plate. The wire connected to the zinc plate represented the negative terminal, while the one leading from the copper plate was the positive terminal. Obviously, this arrangement would not have functioned well in a flashlight, but for stationary applications it worked just fine. In fact, the Daniell cell was a common way to power doorbells and telephones before electrical generation was perfected. By 1898, the Colombia Dry Cell became the first commercially available battery sold in the United States. The manufacturer, National Carbon Company, later became the Eveready Battery Company, which produces the Energizer brand. Well thats the history batteries are really handy and old. Many people use batters everyday for all sorts of things from flash light to toys! Batteries also come in different shapes and sizes for example one batterie is shapped like a square, another one is a very tiny batterie used for calculaters and other small things in the nature, and then you have your normal battery a medium sized looking tube battery. Sometimes I wonder what the world would be like if we didnt have batteries how would some things run?