David Buerge

Embarrassing Injustice: Proposed State Education Law Omits Teaching Duwamish History

Seattle pioneers came intending to found a town and get rich selling lots to subsequent settlers. The last thing Seattle’s white settlers wanted was for land near them withdrawn from the public domain and set up as an Indian Reservation.

Beginnings: The Mythic Origins of Puget Sound People

History has treated this mythic sanctuary with destructive indifference. But traces of the Native People's origins of the human world can still be glimpsed.

The Star of Bethlehem and how It May Have Existed

Hellenistic astrology, with its houses, trines and aspects, is highly complex, and with the help of computers to date the risings, settings, and positions of celestial objects, Molnar could accurately determine that in the early afternoon on April 17, 6 BC, the sun and moon and planets were in a unique position relative to the constellation Aries that announced a royal Jewish birth.

A Short History of the Electoral College, Messy From the Start

The Non-Interference Policy advises federal prosecutors in each state to consult with the Election Crimes Branch before investigating possible irregularities but only after state votes have been certified. Barr’s authorization enables prosecutors to carry out investigations immediately. The potential for confusion and legal conflict is great, which is the point.

Sleeping Languages Rising: NW Native Languages Fight for Survival

Very few Lushootseed speakers survive, and the language is regarded as critically endangered. The next stage of decline is dormancy, a so-called “sleeping language” that has no proficient speakers but is still important to a particular ethnic community.

An Ancient Clam Garden Resurfaces on a Puget Sound Beach

Overnight the rare, ephemeral deposits left by ancient people underground are replaced by visible sturdy stone structures. It is as though we woke up to find Anasazi pueblo ruins in our back yard. The lithic has been put back in Neolithic.

One Teacher’s Guide To Teaching: Get Out In The World

Education Reform? Teach what you know and how you know it. Get their attention; challenge minds; open hearts. Trust me, they are eager, and it can be done.

Painful, Blissful Memories of Boyhood Beaches on Puget Sound

We lumbered toward shore on a rising tide, taking forever to make any progress. Gradually we emerged, presenting the primitive spectacle of fish-things on stumpy fins dragging themselves gasping onto dry land. But not quite yet. There was still the menacing sea lettuce.

The Cloud-Capped Myths of Mt. Rainier

The clouds recall the volcanic beheading. The cap cloud rising thousands of feet above the summit recalls Rainier's earlier elevation, estimated by the angles of high lava flows to have been around 16,000 feet. As the clouds divide and slip to the Mountain’s lee, her monstrous head is severed and thrown, as if in aggregate motion.

The Ancient Roadway That Became Seattle’s Meridian

Meridian Avenue traces a long route from Green Lake north to Edmonds, and it likely traces an Indian path connecting key food sites and a military highway begun when America feared a war with the British. Imaginary mastodons can be "seen."

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