Gouyen (c.1857-1903): Wise Woman of the Apache

Footnotes and citations available in the footnotes on the main site: click here.

Thanks to the Mescalero Apache Tribe for looking over the entry and okaying it for online publication. 

If you’re interested in the book, I put up a ton of details about it here, and you can preorder online here. 

Next entry, something less grim and gritty. More details behind the cut.

Keep reading

Thought I’d add some reference pictures used in the creation of this entry (this is the only reblog I’ll do for the full thing). First, we have Gouyen in later life, after she remarried and had a family:

Next, what I based her ceremonial outfit on:

And her regular wear:

Chief Quanah Parker, visual reference for the Comanche chief:

The Comanche knife:

And the dancers:

Sometimes when you are in a relationship you may look at your partner (perhaps they are sleeping, or doing something particularly sweet and vulnerable) and you ask yourself “what would I do if anyone hurt them?” - and your heart just roars in response. The answer can be worrying or surprising or frightening.

And here you know that if your heart answered chirpily, “If anyone hurt my partner, I would honestly kill them with my bare fucking teeth,” then there is a woman in history who shared this thought with you. 

And she did it. She straight-up killed someone with her bare fucking teeth. She went into that place, the place people are a little afraid of.

Maybe you don’t share much with other Disney princesses or heroes, but if you’ve ever had that thought, you share it with her.

This was a truly splendid reading experience, thank you.

This is some truth laid down right here boy.

Millennials have essentially been forced into a perpetual teenagerhood by socioeconomic circumstance, we desperately want to grow up, and we’re worried that we’re running out of time to do so

AU where instead of trying to cure her infertility Yennefer just goes around saving random people’s lives and invoking the law of surprise bcos she figures sooner or later it’ll net her a baby. she hasn’t got one yet but she has amassed about 2 dozen dogs so she’s doing pretty well for herself.

1) after a while her habit of swooping in at the last minute to save the day gets her a rep as a legit superhero. she’s like ‘no you don’t understand. I Am Not Nice. I’m doing this for very selfish reasons - stop praising me you don’t get it’

2) ‘I’m starting to think that destiny must be a real thing. there’s no other explanation for how many of my surprises are dogs. destiny is real and destiny wants me to have dogs for some reason.’

Okay but her doing this beFORE Geralt does it and when she finds out that he only had to invoke the law of surprise ONCE to get a baby she goes absolutely feral on him. Just dead silent, furious, finally starts pulling off her jewelry like, “bard, hold my earrings.”

Yennefer: actually can I trade your child surprise for some of my dog surprises

Geralt: um

Yennefer: how many dogs equals one child. how about 10? 10 dogs.

Geralt: I don’t think this is how the law of surprise works

Jaskier: Geralt’s child surprise is a princess so I’d say she’s worth at least 20 dogs

Yennefer: how about 15? I can do you 15. 

Geralt: no.

Jaskier: but Geralt…. so many puppies Geralt

*a portal opens. dozens upon dozens of dogs come spilling out, racing around and clearly having a great time*

Villain of the week: ??????

Geralt: oh good! Yennefer’s here

Jaskier, yelling through portal: hi Yennefer!

Villain of the week: ????????????????????????

“It’s one human baby, Geralt. How much could it be, like 10 dogs?”

Bard, Bath and a Song 🎶 

Heeere’s my version of geraskier bath time! *tosses this onto the pile*

Finally listened to all music! My favorite song was an untitled file called “ssssddsdrt66677888.ogg” that I found on a flash drive that I found in a landfill in Tunisia

In case anyone is actually into this there are 3 volumes of these:

Ok so at first I was like “oh haha funny meme” then I was actually impressed by this cellphone music thing??

I looked it up and just listening to the first volume I am blown away like transcended a new level of music creators/Saharan culture blown away guys pLEASe listen to this itissogood

[Bandcamp link here!]

Humans are REALLY INTO MAKING AND SHARING MUSIC, guys.

If you like this you might also like

Awesome Tapes from Africa

which is, well, what it says on the tin. Some stuff is free to download, some stuff is available to purchase, some stuff is both.

Just on the first page, we have:

Arthur — Vuvuzela  Dance Remixes Vol. 3 — S’Bamu [South Africa]

Nahawa Doumbia — La Grande Cantatrice Malienne Vol 1  [Mali]

Asnakech Worku — Asnakech (featuring Hailu Mergia) [Ethiopia]

Khalifa Gueye — Ruba [Senegal]

The site started as just a guy digitizing music from cassette tapes that you couldn’t find anywhere outside street markets in various African cities, and now it’s an actual record label that works with African musicians… and also a guy digitizing tapes.

It’s amazing cultural anthropology as well as great music.

I just. I don’t like this view of “millennials vs Gen Z”. This is NOT supposed to be a competition of who got fucked over the most and who’s “actually fighting back”.

Millennials are fighting back just by surviving in a job market where the minimum wage doesn’t cover the living cost. Millennials are awesome at “killing” the diamond, golfing and napkins industries. Millennials are using the internet to make sure things that corporations want to keep in the dark are exposed. They’re open LGBTQIA-friendly business, they’re supporting each other with online donations so everyone can survive this shitty economy.

And the Gen Z kids? The Gen Z kids are rad. I remember a post about something like the millennials making a collective promise to never become a disenchanted generation that only criticizes the next one and I want to point out that this “millennials vs gen z” trend is trying to do exactly that: split us apart. Prevent millennials from being the older siblings that teach the younger siblings to throw a good punch and turn them into the annoyed adult complaining about “those kids” on their lawn. We are the two groups that grew in a connected world of information. We are two very unique generations.

I think that it’s our duty for us millennials, as a disrespected, underpaid, very angry generation to stand up by our younger siblings, and fight together the oppressive systems that brought us all to this point.

They’re trying very hard to pit Millennials and Gen Z against each other because I honestly think they’re terrified of what the two will accomplish together.

tbh i see little difference between us and gen z. we both got royally fucked over. we both have tons of societal and economic trauma. we’ve got nearly identical ideals and goals. hell, older folk can’t even seem to distinguish us anymore. we are a force to be reckoned with together. and hell, even the newest gen is showing some great promise. i’ve never known so many literal KIDS that are so aware of their world, so generous, and so compassionate, and already quite involved in politics, even if on a small scale.

three generations are poised to be closely united in a fuckton of social, climate, and humanity issues.

they have reason to be terrified.

something that people really dont understand about ADHD is that we dont “jump from one idea to the next”

we have very fast, very associative minds that connect ideas. we have a train of thought, it just goes WAY faster than yours!

example: im thinking about dogs. that makes me think of pitbulls, which makes me think of an animal planet show i enjoy. the show connects to tv in general, which makes me think of my favorite cartoon. i associate my favorite cartoon with art and animation, and i wind up thinking about shading techniques.

TL;DR: having ADHD is kinda like playing a lifelong game of 7 Degrees of Kevin Bacon

…WHAT THE FUCK

I am plagued by this but also that associative learning makes it really easy to be a hyper-generalist in terms of skills and knowledge.

This is how my brain works….

The downside is, very few people can keep pace with these jumps, and I’ve actually been told my “mind leaps” are annoying.

Yeah.

Let that sink in.

Being told that the way my mind makes connections between Point A and Point D while seemingly bypassing B and C is “annoying”.

… this.

It drives my husband absolutely NUTS- we’ll be having a conversation and in a lull between sentences I’ll have jumped ahead six topics, pop back in with a “Yeah, and-“

Meanwhile, he’s looking at me like I’ve grown another head. To him, whatever I’ve just said is a total non sequitur, but I can track EXACTLY how I got there… it just doesn’t make any sort of sense to anyone but me.

WHOA

This Blog Is Unrepentantly Pro- AO3!

This blogger remembers when we didn’t have AO3.

This blogger remembers when we had to put disclaimers at the head of our fics and pray that someone didn’t take it into their heads to sue us for what we created.

This blogger remembers brilliant artists and writers getting decades of work obliterated on LJ because someone who wanted to tell people what they were allowed to create went running to someone who wanted a profit, and told them the artists and writers had been naughty.

This blogger remembers just how hard the creators of AO3 worked to build the thing we all seem to take for granted now.

This blogger watched friends dive into the creation process so heartily and determinedly that they all but disappeared from the writing/gaming/artistic side of their fandom for YEARS while they worked to make the archive happen.

This blogger remembers the sense of giddy wonder that there would possibly be LAWYERS involved, willing to defend our right to create these works, and not leave us hanging at the mercy of corporate legal teams.

This blogger is aware that she reads between twenty to fifty books’ worth of material every year on AO3, and is never REQUIRED to pay a penny for the privilege of getting access.

This blogger is aware that she will not ever see advertisements on AO3, and that her personal data and reading preferences won’t be sold to advertisers in order to raise the money that AO3 needs to pay for the services they provide.

This blogger is aware that AO3 is, and has always been, a labor of love; by fans, for fans, and not for profiting off fans – and this is what makes it unique in the whole of the media universe.

This blogger has NEVER taken AO3 for granted, and has ALWAYS been damned glad to have access to it.  Even in years when this blogger didn’t have the means to support it financially.

I CAN’T

#sg1 is my favourite 90s sitcom actually (via @mindblownie)

SG-1 being a ‘90s sitcom is perhaps the best take on it I’ve seen xD

Y’know, back in my day, if a pestilence swept through the land during a time of famine and flood, it meant that the reigning kings had displeased the gods and that we risked the gods’ further ire by obeying them

Then you took the king out, chopped his head off, and threw him into a bog to appease the angry gods. 

watch until the very end

A commercial for ice cream has no business being this lit.

YALL

So I have read several people complaining that they can't be expected to know the "unwritten rules" of fandom. So here's what I wish people knew:

Fanfiction is fiction.

Fictional people are not real.

Fictional people do not have rights.

Fictional people cannot be abused.

Reading or writing about something does not mean the desire to do or support it in the real world.

If I find art upsetting/triggering/disgusting/outraging/unpleasant/squicky/distressing/offensive, it is on me not to read it, not the creators and hosts to remove it.

Curate your own experience. The back buttons exist for a reason.

If you don't trust yourself to do that, get someone you trust to do it for you.

Fandom is an adult space. Adults create and own and host fandom spaces. If minors want to participate, then the onus is on them and their parents/guardians/trusted adults to ensure they participate appropriately, not on strange adults to stop being adults.

You often don't know the assault status or mental health status or neurotype or race or nationality or religion or gender or sexuality or age of a creator or consumer, and they do not have to disclose to you to justify their fantasy.

AO3 is not a safe space. It is not intended to be a safe space. Proceed accordingly.

Just because you don't like something or find it offensive doesn't mean it is a "problem" that "has to be dealt with".

Most characters in anime are not white.

There is no onus on you to reblog or share anything.

Everyone makes mistakes in fandom and is less than their best self sometimes.

Persistent pseudonyms encourage long term relationships.

Ship wars are stupid.

Someone else enjoying things does not impact on your own enjoyment of other things.

Tagging and warning is a courtesy, not a requirement. Assume any fic might contain untagged content.

Rating is an imprecise art, not a science.

Don't hassle IP creators.

Most people who are in fandom are hoping to make connections based on a shared passion.

Trying to profit from transformative fanworks puts us all at risk.

No one is obligated to share your head canon or fanon.

Being kind rarely fails to pay off.

It is okay to block and remove people who make your experience unpleasant. You don't have to placate them. (Learn from my mistakes).

Britpicking is a good thing.

You don't have to justify why you like a canon/pairing/trope/kink. Sometimes navel gazing is fun, but you don't have an obligation to explain yourself, especially to strangers. I share the overwhelming desire to refute an unfair accusation, but the people accusing you are rarely doing so in good faith, so you're batting a losing wicket.

I'm not your Mum. (Well, okay, a very few of you can call me Mum or Mom, but if you are one of them you already know who you are ❤️)

If you aren't mature enough to take responsibility for your online experiences, you aren't mature enough to be in fandom spaces.