URL: https://www.indianz.com/News/archives/000905.asp

Tuesday, August 19, 2003

"I sit at my computer with forearms white with calamine lotion and work blisters on my palms, the results of my trip to see the late summer prairie blooming and to gaze at Mars on the wide open plains.

The rash on my forearms is not poison ivy or oak. I know that because the bumps have remained more itch than ooze. My daughter, who can come within sneezing distance of the ivy and become an oozing mess, said with a smile I probably had one of the "poisons." I have never had to open a jar of calamine lotion - never in 62 years, I told her with an edge to my voice. These plants and I have an agreement: I don't step on them and they won't infect me."

Get the Story:
DORREEN YELLOW BIRD COLUMN: Natural world offers glorious summer temptations (The Grnad Forks Herald 8/19)

More Dorreen Yellow Bird:
Yellow Bird: Time for gay rights has come (8/18)
Yellow Bird: Ushering in a new phase of life (8/13)
Yellow Bird: Healing through ceremony (8/11)
Yellow Bird: Going fishing with good friends (8/5)
Yellow Bird: My mother, the great recycler (8/4)
Yellow Bird: Skin color doesn't matter for group (7/28)
Yellow Bird: Those really long Indian names (06/30)
Yellow Bird: Children's stories getting better (6/24)
Yellow Bird: Not your average bear adventure (6/17)
Yellow Bird: Preserving tribal medicine (6/16)
Yellow Bird: Nature's wonders in own back yard (6/10)
Yellow Bird: Public school teachers deserve praise (6/9)
Yellow Bird: Where the land and wind heal the soul (6/3)
Yellow Bird: Women should be allowed to fight (6/2)
Yellow Bird: Rebate forms difficult but addictive (5/27)
Yellow Bird: Indian Country tourism could work (5/27)
Yellow Bird: Dragonflies important to Natives (5/20)
Yellow Bird: This year, a sad Mother's Day (05/12)
Yellow Bird: Crazy Horse monument worthy task (5/6)
Yellow Bird: The good SPAM and the bad spam (5/5)
Yellow Bird: Black Hills hurt by urban sprawl (5/1)
Yellow Bird: My mother, at the final chapter (04/22)
Yellow Bird: Taxes, bills and orange peels (4/21)
Yellow Bird: Sacred ceremonies are not a business (4/15)
Yellow Bird: Indian child welfare act a necessity (4/14)
Yellow Bird: Pow-wow crosses cultural lines (4/8)
Yellow Bird: An Indian guide to Lewis and Clark (4/7)
Yellow Bird: Columnist 'put his foot in his mouth' (4/1)
Yellow Bird: Events help teach about Native culture (3/31)
Yellow Bird: Native people are never unpatriotic (3/25)
Yellow Bird: All is still not equal for women (03/17)
Yellow Bird: Enough of the cold already! (3/11)
Yellow Bird: Don't cut funds for the elderly (3/10)
Yellow Bird: Mister Rogers was like an elder (3/3)
Yellow Bird: Worries have changed in U.S. capitol (2/25)
Yellow Bird: Great-grandfather Little Sioux (2/24)
Yellow Bird: Unity needed in journalism too (2/18)
Yellow Bird: Finding peace in uncertain times (2/17)
Yellow Bird: Astronauts were elite, courageous (02/04)
Yellow Bird: Through diversity comes unity (2/3)
Yellow Bird: We're cold and proud of it (1/28)
Yellow Bird: It could have been anyone (01/14)
Yellow Bird: Deer encounters, Part 2 (1/13)
Yellow Bird: Listen up roaming deer! (1/7)
Yellow Bird: Looking past stereotypes (1/6)
Yellow Bird: We can learn from TIME report (12/23)