Dreamcatchers & Vietnamese Pho soup

Falcon & T.J. in front of Falcon's dreamcatchers

There are two Native Americans in Nickelsville, and they both make traditional dreamcatchers and jewelry.  Last thursday Falcon showed me his work (photographed for this posts) and perhaps T.J. will show me hers next time.


T.J. is of of Tlingit people on her father's side and norwegian on her mother's.

The Tlingit (pronounced /ˈklɪŋkɨt/ or /ˈtlɪŋɡɨt/ in English; sometimes spelled Tlinkit) are an Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast.^[2] Their name for themselves is Lingít,^[3] meaning "human beings"^[4] (pronounced[ɬɪnkɪ́t]). The Russian name Koloshi (Колоши) (from an Alutiiq term for the labret) or the related German nameKoulischen may be encountered in older historical literature, such as Shelikhov's 1796 map of Russian America.^[5]

The Tlingit are a matrilineal society^[6] that developed a complex hunter-gatherer culture in the temperate rainforest of the southeast Alaska coast and the Alexander Archipelago. An inland subgroup, known as the Inland Tlingit, inhabits the far northwestern part of the province of British Columbia and the southern Yukon Territory in Canada.

More here....

Falcon's dreamcatchers

Falcon is of Sioux people in South Dakota and plans to visit them soon.
The Sioux (pronounced /ˈsuː/) are a Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects. The Sioux comprise three major divisions based on Siouan dialect and subculture:

• Isáŋyathi or Isáŋathi ("Knife," originating from the name of a lake in present-day Minnesota): residing in the extreme east of the Dakotas, Minnesota, and northern Iowa, and are often referred to as the Santeeor Eastern Dakota.

• Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋ and Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋna ("Village-at-the-end" and "little village-at-the-end"): residing in theMinnesota River area, they are considered to be the middle Sioux, and are often referred to as theYankton and the Yanktonai, or, collectively, as the Wičhíyena (endonym) or the Western Dakota (and have been erroneously classified as “Nakota”^[3]) .

• Thítȟuŋwaŋ or Teton (uncertain, perhaps "Dwellers on the Prairie"; this name is archaic among the natives, who prefer to call themselves Lakȟóta^[4]): the westernmost Sioux, known for their hunting and warrior culture, are often referred to as the Lakota.

More here....

Earrings made by Falcon

Falcon sells his shorter earrings for $10 and the longer one for $15 - he is usually present on the farmers market at U-district (corner of University and 50th) or you can find him directly at Nickelsville.

Earrings made by Falcon

Joanna helped me to chop the stuff for Pho soup, and Richard finely chopped the garlic for it;  this was the first time that the pho soup turned out ok in may hands, mainly because the day before I discovered in Asian market packets of correct spices for pho and that had made all the difference - usually I cannot identify basic pho spices except for star anise and cinnamon....  The packets came complete with a gauze  sachet to put the spices in - we simmered them in water with fresh ginger and onion while chopping cabbage, broccoli, cilantro and preparing in separate pot the rice noodles.  I'm afraid I put too many noodles in the pot and it attached itself to the pot bottom - Richard was left with cleaning it:(...  When the kitchen smelled of the Vietnamese spices enough we threw the veggies and noodles into pot, cooked it about 1 minute and added chopped garlic, cilantro, thai basil  and bean sprouts.  With the pot off the burner we seasoned it a bit with hot sriracha paste, hoisin sauce and soy sauce, but not too much, so people could individually adjust how spicy they liked it.