by Richard Seifried
Signal Hill Musings
January, 2005
Some special friends live below us, at the eastern base of Signal Hill. Their home sits just above an intermittent stream, a place known for its nocturnal orb lights and rumors of Bigfoot. Quite a mystical place.
Are those orbs at the haunted Crescent Hotel in haunted Eureka Springs, Arkansas?
They just gave us a booklet, Once Upon a Time in Arkansas, by John K. Quint. It is a wonderful gift because the little publication includes local legends of the Little People and other strange beings. I, as reported in a previous Musing, once encountered a Sasquatch, and have become fascinated with native lore.
What in the world is going on in this dimension of ours?
Back in 1985, when I still lived in Ohio, I was writing in the family room. The low-in-the-south winter sun was shining through the dinette window, catching dust particles sailing about in what otherwise would have been empty space.
All of a sudden Kyra, my daughter Julie’s cat, snapped awake. She had been sleeping on the back of our recliner. Kyra’s eyes opened wide. With head raised, she stared, fascinated as “something” that I couldn’t discern slowly moved across the room. The cat stared until whatever it was reached the south wall of the room. Then, since “it” was no longer there, Kyra went back to sleep.
Has your cat ever done that?
Recently, whenever mysterious occurrences happen, my mind inevitably finds its way to Blue Spring, the National Heritage Center just west of Eureka Springs. In all honesty, I have never felt anything spiritual or supernatural when I have frequented the place.
But my friend John Two-Hawks (in Ogallala Lakota, “Cetan-Nunpa”) tells me that he has. He and a friend spent a night, this past autumn, in the tipi that is located on the flat meadow just east of the great spring. Of course I was curious, but I didn’t ask him to elaborate because I didn’t wish to intrude on his personal experience.
John Two-Hawks at Blue Spring Heritage Center in Arkansas, a Trail of Tears site.
However, a friend of ours, a recipient of Signal Hill Musings, told me of a fascinating experience she had where she lives, across the river from Blue Spring. She and her husband spoil all of their animals, treating them with considerable respect and dignity.
One day their pet cow began giving birth to a calf, and she was having a very difficult time. When our friend and her husband finally delivered the baby, they saw that the calf was dying. They loaded it on to the back of their truck and sped up to the house. The poor mother, distraught, having endured considerable pain, already bonded to her offspring, ran after the truck carrying its calf, bawling with anxiety. By the time they reached the house, the calf was dead.
Both humans and the mother were terribly upset. That night our lady friend couldn’t sleep. The tragedy of the event wouldn’t leave her thoughts. As so many people do in times of sorrow, she slipped out of bed and went into the bathroom and sat there, trying to calm down, to stop the flow of tears.
Then, coming through the open window, she heard the beating of a drum. A man’s voice, low and strong, began chanting. The music went on and on. Our friend realized that the drumbeat and male voice were soothing her. Anxiety left her. Sadness was replaced with peacefulness. After a while she went back to bed and fell asleep.
The next morning, our friend’s teenage daughter asked, “Mother, who was the man beating the drum and chanting last night?” She told her mother that the sound was very close to the house.
Our friend replied, “Don’t worry. Those were just our Cherokee ancestors.” Both realized that their heritage had somehow given them a wonderful and soothing Native American experience.
I truly believe that all of you readers have had unexplainable events happen in your lives. Some of you reject such things. That is your way of coping. Others of you wonder, perhaps marvel at what has transpired.
For many of you, and for Jean and me, such occurrences make our lives on this marvelous Planet Earth that much more wonderful.
