Native American Heritage Month

Blackfoot tribe encampment. United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service.

“The sky is covered with high piled clouds; the earth is covered with misty fog; the earth is covered with great rains…and the thunder drums are being heard in all the directions of the earth…” —Apache Prayer-Song*  

This Native American Heritage Month, we recognize indigenous people who hold a high respect and understanding of nature. Early Native Americans were attuned to recognizing animal behavior and skilled at observing clouds to predict good weather or impending storms. For example, “When the clouds rise in terraces of white, soon will the country of the corn priests be pierced with the arrows of rain.”* At Columbia Weather, we were grateful to work with the Shoalwater Bay Tribe of Washington State for their Air Quality Monitoring System.