INDIAN COUNTRY TODAY

One second they were munching contentedly, as bovines do, in a field that had been providing sustenance for at least 15 years. An instant later they were convulsing, bellowing and dying as ranchers looked on helplessly. Over the next few hours, 15 of the 18 cattle died.

Imagine how much different your life might be if the sun, which is so important to life on our planet, were your sworn enemy. That’s the case for those who suffer from the rare genetic disorder Xeroderma pigmentosum, or XP. It’s rare, yet it affects some ethnic populations more than others, and it is far more common on the Navajo Nation than in the general U.S. population.

Deep inside the unassuming borders of what is today Ohio sits a complex of earthworks aligned so precisely with the rise and set of the moon that modern surveying equipment could not do better. And this summer, lots of public events means you can enjoy and marvel, as the ancients must have done.

If you like scary, suspense-filled stories and will get the chance to read only one book this fall … may we suggest the spine-tingling Assessment of Climate Change in the Southwest United States?

While millions around the world will flock to view the annular solar eclipse on Sunday at sunset, many who are smack in the middle of its shadowy path will avert their eyes. Eclipses are a bad omen in much of Indian country, and the indigenous world in general, from the Navajo to the Maya.

When the gates of the Dalles Dam on the Columbia River east of the Cascades slammed shut in 1957 tribal peoples watched in stunned disbelief, as the waters angrily whirlpooled behind the dam’s gates before drowning the ancient and revered Celilo Falls fishery.

The To’Hajiilee Navajo Chapter plans to establish a solar array farm on its trust lands, a flat stretch of prairie in central New Mexico where land preparation for the project is minimal, reported the Associated Press.

The Lyrids lit up the night sky on Saturday-Sunday, and then delivered a parting shot over Nevada and northern California—a fireball that streaked across the sky on Sunday at around 8 a.m., then exploded with a huge boom as it burnt up in the atmosphere.

It’s a veritable sky party on the night of April 21, as 15–20 or even more Lyrid meteors shower down hourly upon the skies of Mother Earth. A new moon means dark skies, which will make the brightest shooting-star show in a while, according to the experts. Elsewhere in the sky, Mars and Saturn will make an appearance as well.

So far in 2012 we’ve seen flaming aurora borealis displays associated with increased solar activity, with even better to come in the next year or two. There have been spectacular conjunctions of the moon with Venus and Jupiter. Not to mention dazzling glimpses of Mars and Jupiter and the rarely seen Mercury.