Seventeen lives were lost in the Washita Flood of 1934, that brought about the flood prevention system for the surrounding area. Little known is this flood with its impact and death toll. Less known than that, is the Cheyenne and Arapaho band that escaped that flood and why they survived. Nearly completely unknown is the short conversation my grandfather had with their Chief as he led his people to higher ground.
The Cheyenne and Arapaho had not completely conceded their nomadic ways to the policy of extermination that had preceded them. Nor, had they totally surrendered returning to their old ways in the devastating midst of Indian Boarding Schools. They still rode on horses for transportation at this general time. Tepees were less commonly used, yet their nomadic lifestyle was being somewhat preserved by the use of tar paper on poles as substitutes for tepees. The justification for using tar paper over another material like canvas, was that tar paper was superior in its water repelling capabilities. Ceremonial tepees were still used then, and they are still used today at certain times. Although they had no need for money prior to the invasions, white encroachment, and Manifest Destiny - they were having to bend to a "new way of life."
The Cheyenne and Arapaho had two primary sources of income there that I’m aware of. One was government subsidies, while the other was farm work. My grandfather, a poor farmer, hired a couple as farmhands. One happened to have been a Chief at that time. That relationship combined with some cultural misunderstanding led to a short talk with enormous implications then and now.
My grandfather had been traveling near the Washita River on foot, when he observed the Cheyenne Chief, who also worked for my grandfather, moving his people to an unknown destination. They had been camped right by the Washita River, yet all their things were loaded onto wagons, which were being drawn by horses. “What the hell is this?” he probably thought to himself. It must have been quite a scene to witness that whole band moving for no apparent reason. My grandfather walked up to him. Curious and bewildered, he asked the Chief, “What are you doing?” Getting straight to the point, the Chief answered, “River rising.” “River rising, what do you mean? There’s not a cloud in the sky.” The Chief simply gave the same answer as before, “River rising.” My grandfather’s curiosity peaked, “River rising, how in the hell do you know that?” “Owl hoot in daytime,” the Chief said (the owl is believed to be a messenger of death by the plains tribes that I’m aware of).
My grandfather was most confused and reacted, “What the hell do you mean ‘Owl hoot in daytime’?” That’s where the conversation ended. They parted ways and continued towards their original destinations with “no cloud in the sky,” and the Cheyenne Chief led his people to dry land and safety - only because he heard the owl hoot in the daytime.
Fourteen other souls lost their lives that night along the Washita in what has become known as the Hammon flood of '34. Bush miraculously saved his life that day by clinging to a tree with his older brother, Woodrow. They hung on for dear life for 14 hours before rescuers could reach them in a row boat.
Personal Conclusion
“River rising” then meant one of the worst flooding tragedies many might face in their appropriate regions; however, it is now true that enormous amounts of ice are melting, thus making seas and oceans rise. The Chief listened to the owl and heeded its warning. I sure as hell hope that everyone is listening to all of the scientists' warnings. Seventeen lives were lost in the Washita Flood of 1934, before Climate Change was discovered (In 1938, Guy Callendar connected carbon dioxide increases in Earth’s atmosphere to global warming).
It will be incomprehensibly worse.
For the first time in more than a decade, climate change has been left off a list of national security threats facing the United States.
Its exclusion from the 2025 Annual Threat Assessment, released this week, tracks with the Trump administration’s broader dismissal of global warming as either an issue or a risk. The report is put together by the 18 different agencies that comprise the U.S. intelligence community, and the latest version focuses on China and foreign terrorist groups, among other threats.
Previous versions of the assessment have noted the danger posed by climate change. That includes the risk of more extreme weather events, including hurricanes and wildfires, as well as global warming’s effect on geopolitics. For example, a drought in the Middle East could lead a conflict that might require intervention by U.S. troops
And owls hooting in the daytime are being killed by us and our “advanced civilization.”
Extinct Owls
There are many known species of owls that are now extinct. That means that they no longer exist and that they will never again walk the Earth. All of them have one thing in common – they are extinct due to their natural environment being taken from them in such a sizable amount that they weren’t able to evolve or to thrive without it being there for them.
Who will warn, who will listen, and who will act?
Update (thanks to strawbale):
Source
In a series of experiments conducted in 1856, Eunice Newton Foote — a scientist and women's rights campaigner from Seneca Falls, New York — became the first person to discover that altering the proportion of carbon dioxide (then called "carbonic acid gas") in the atmosphere would change its temperature. This relationship between carbon dioxide and the earth's climate has since become one of the key principles of modern meteorology, the greenhouse effect, and climate science. However, no one acknowledged Foote was the first to make this discovery for more than a century, in large part because she was a woman.
