Knowing which way the wind blows: Weather observation, belief and practice in Native Oklahoma

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dc.contributor.advisorOffen, Karl H
dc.creatorPeppler, Randy Alan
dc.date.accessioned2019-06-03T20:35:49Z
dc.date.available2019-06-03T20:35:49Z
dc.date.issued2011
dc.description.abstractI conducted field interviews and observed and participated in farming and cultural activities to understand how Native American farmers and traditionalists in southwestern Oklahoma conceptualize weather and climate, particularly in local, observational ways, and how the insight they glean from their observations is helping inform renewed efforts to farm, garden, and ranch within a broader framework of agricultural independence and self-determination. Many of the farmers explained that while they consult modern weather and climate forecasts to help guide their farming decisions, they prize their own observations and indicators as providing a local relevance and situational awareness they cannot obtain from other informational sources, and they use the insights gained from them as a key part of an actionable knowledge complex for decision making. My research findings suggest that the observational and performative ritual components of their knowledge are deeply rooted in a belief system that promotes an intimate, reciprocal relationship with the non-human world, and are initially formed through intergenerational transfer as passed down from family members. Their knowledge is culturally situated as "ways of knowing of the ancestors" and is subject to mediation through various social and group influences. The observational and performative aspects of their knowledge are practiced and renewed routinely within agriculture and during times of pandemonium such as an approaching tornado, and adapt and evolve as a matter of that experience, and also adapt and evolve in response to what they perceive as changing conditions due to increased climate variability.
dc.format.extent298 pages
dc.format.mediumapplication.pdf
dc.identifier99358696602042
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/11244/320218
dc.languageen_US
dc.relation.requiresAdobe Acrobat Reader
dc.subjectIndians of North America--Agriculture--Oklahoma
dc.subjectWeather--Folklore
dc.subjectCrops and climate--Oklahoma
dc.subjectAgriculture--Environmental aspects--Oklahoma
dc.thesis.degreePh.D.
dc.titleKnowing which way the wind blows: Weather observation, belief and practice in Native Oklahoma
dc.typetext
dc.typedocument
ou.groupCollege of Atmospheric & Geographic Sciences::Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability

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