Well, I supposed I haven't updated here much lately, have I? I've been a bit busy with other things.
A few weeks ago I drew some sketches that never made it up here, so I'm putting them up now. I was working on figuring out "Sarah." I'm not certain how warm of a character she should be. I had ideas of her being cold and ninja-like (Apache-warrior-like?), older than Chase, sort of hanging around to make sure Matthew keeps his head. I've drawn her as a more domestic type, because that's how real Navajo women dress (long shirt over a Spanish dress/skirt). I presume there's little difference between the modern female outfit and what would be worn around 1880, since the Navajo had been fairly beaten down and "civilized" at that point. The only noticeable difference is that a modern woman (on the reservation) would wear modern shoes (saddle shoes are apparently popular) and probably finer quality jewelry.
Navajo sketch:
I think I understand the doubled over/tied up hair, but I'm not sure about the "boots." They look like moccasins with a fat strip of leather wound around the leg, up to the calf, and fixed with buttons or snaps of some kind. They may not actually work like that, since I'm going off pictures only.
Here's Sarah in Navajo gear:
It doesn't really seem right for her to wear that if she's going to be out adventuring (with my modern bias for jeans), but I suppose it's at least better than a hoop skirt.
I put her in Apache clothes here:
Though actually she's wearing a sort of "Quinceañera"/"maiden ceremony" outfit, not everyday clothes. I like the buckskin, though... Apache shoes have funny little toes on them, and I'm not sure why. They might be there to keep you from stubbing your toes, or to climb better, or just as decoration. *shrug*
And I doodled her kissing Chase:
I think Chase might be getting a lot of action in this version... but I don't think it'll be a harem comedy.

This is really just a quick note for me so I make sure I don't forget they call the portals "sipapoos" (sipapoo/sipapu/sippapu/sippapoo/etc. - Hopi word for hole of emergence from the world below).

There are a great many myths and legends regarding the Superstition Mountain area (east of Phoenix). Most of them are ghost stories about dead miners, and I couldn't care less. However, what interests me are the tales of portals into other worlds that mysteriously appear and disappear (seen Primeval yet?). Things can go in or out, so you may fall through and land God knows where, or a lizard man could come through and eat your face.

Burlingtonnews.net writes a lot on the subject, though I make no claims as to the truth of any of it:

PORTALS DO EXIST HERE! Several friends of ours have shared their portal experiences with me in the Superstitions. One was Bob Ward, Ripples of the Lost Echos, and another was Bob Schoose, owner of Gold Field Ghost Town. Later I will present the stories on their experiences. If you do come across one keep in mind that if you can pass through then something can pass through going in the opposite direction. Also some Sipapoos are stationary others are moving, yes I said moving from one location to another like waves of energy. Also they are not always accessible, some are open all the time, most are not, so if you went through one, there is no guarantee it will be open when and if you return…
Nothing should come to any great surprise to you in the Superstition Mountain area. Don't be shocked if in one minute you turn about to see an old Indian or prospector standing in the distance starring at you...or even a little person. You blink your eyes and 'they've disappeared'. That's part of the norm . Or you find missing time you can not account for, but reach in your pocket to find a piece of gold or crystal. That, my friend, is also part of the norm.

And something random... SuperstitionMountainHikes.com has some really nice photos of plants, animals, and landmarks in the area, WITH THE GPS LOCATION! XD That amuses me for some reason. I guess if you go hiking with a GPS device, you can find all this stuff. But don't go after dark, or the lizard men will eat you.

Augh... I haven't updated this for a bit, have I? I saw a few movies of note. I saw Star Trek, and what can I say, but you should go watch it about five times if you haven't already. I know some of you have. I think I've seen every show in every series and every movie ever made for Star Trek, and this is by far the best one yet. It has all the cowboy badassery that the series Enterprise promised but never delivered. I FINALLY watched What Dreams May Come. This movie does a fairly good job of presenting what I believe regarding the other side. I didn't watch the Extras on the DVD, but I presume it's based on NDEs. It also made me cry like a baby, so I'm categorizing it as one of those you watch once, and that's probably enough, not because it's a bad movie, but because it's overwhelming, like Saving Private Ryan. The CG work is superb. I also caught most of An American Tail: Fievel Goes West on TV. I hadn't seen that one in a pretty long time, I guess, because I didn't realize how many old school cartoony bits were in it. The lighting, though, is pretty damn good, even if the western setting is a bit generic (at least it's significantly better than the backdrop for Disney's Home on the Range). The main attraction for me to the American Tail movies (the two that made it to the theater; apparently there were two more that were so great they went straight to video and I never saw them) when I was a kid was the sweet, somewhat melancholy or dreamy (longing) music. There were a lot of animated movies that were particularly moving (Balto, All Dogs Go to Heaven, The Secret of NIMH... hell, probably anything by Don Bluth, etc.), and I wish I could produce such a thing myself. Watching a really well composed film like this (yes, an animated musical) puts me in this mental state where I'm still a 12 year old girl thoroughly convinced that if I could just believe hard enough, a hole in space and time would rip open and I could slip through into a fantasy world full of talking animals and magical creatures, and I'd have a boyfriend that looked just like Link from The Legend of Zelda cartoon, (and most importantly I wouldn't have to go to school). I'm now a bitter old woman because I never managed to unravel the fabric of space-time for my own selfish purposes. My last hope is that CERN helps me out. Either that or I get back to making comics. Six of one...

So... comics. I haven't drawn much of anything lately, though I'm hoping to nail down some character designs... eventually. With the boys it's mainly a matter of deciding how old they are, since I keep changing my mind about how old I want Chase to be. I'm getting more excited about the "new" girl character, though. She's not really "new," hence the quotes. Before Crowfeathers existed, I was working on something called Ravensong, which was based on a female main character. Although honestly she was modeled after Kagome (from Inuyasha). When I was still tinkering in Inu-fanfiction, I made Kagome a werewolf (because seriously, Kagome is boring). After that I made her a raven youkai who'd had her powers sealed into a necklace. Now she's... okay, now she's a totally new character. The previous ideas were dumb; now she's an injun. But! People think she's a witch! Even though she's actually not... but she's a better "warrior" than Matthew.

I'm really loving the Navajo, because women are actually important. It's a matriarchal society.

So I was seeing what there was on YouTube with a search of "Navajo" or "Navaho," even "peyote" and other stuff...

This video was nice, just a series of photos of Navajoland set to Sacred Spirt by Enigma. I knew the song (it's off the Pure Moods CD and other albums), but it took me a while to verify the name and what it was. Someone commented (on this YouTube video) that they understood the words, hinting that it was in Navajo, but I wasn't sure if that was true or if they were just BSing. However, I found a supporting claim on TRUVEO:

This is the official video from Sacred Spirit, an effort from Austrian musician Claus Zundel that combines electronic new age music with native American chants. This is Yeha Noha, a chant sung by the Navajo elder Kee Chee Jake of Chinle, Arizona. This chant is part of the Enemy Way Chant or as called in the Navajo language: Ndaa'. It is a healing song sung to cleanse and heal Navajos, often warriors who have come in contact with ghosts, and it is meant to be sung *ONLY* by a Medicine Man of the Navajo Nation. Some info on the Navajo Nation at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navajo_nation

Anyway, there are all sorts of videos, interviews, etc. What sort of surprised me was a few videos that were supposed to be "educational," but which were highly politically motivated and glossed over a lot of historical facts, many of which I'm actually aware of thanks to reading old fashioned books. Then what was disturbing was the comments to a lot of these videos. Some comments were funny -- long chains of "Hey how are you?" messages from people on or away from their home on the reservation. Others, though, tended to either be, "OMG I luv Indian ppl tehy are angels and I hate being white and white people suk and I support Native ppl totally bush is satan omg," or "fuck all white people they need to get off our land and go to hell and they're economy is crashing aroune them bcause tehy have done us wrong and new they get what thy deserve you should all die and get off our land."

Oh dear.

There are a lot of interesting complaints one finds when looking at this sort of thing. On the one hand, there's a complaint that "white people" (a term which ignores the ethnic and cultural diversity of Caucasian peoples) don't know the difference between the cultures of one tribe and another. On the other hand, there's a vicious feeling of protectionism and bitterness toward outsiders who are curious. You can't have it both ways.

Anyway, I don't think I'll employ any particular overriding political slant in my writings. It's not fair to blame any particular group, since every group had its own pressures and problems to deal with (mostly a scarcity of resources). Many if not most of the white settlers moving west were doing so out of desperation; they were poor and hungry and looking for land or gold or whatever they could get to feed themselves and (often) a wagonload of children. The army was then charged with protecting these people (generally without all the provisions needed to fulfill the orders). Most of the Native peoples were in a similar situation. Weakened by droughts and enemy raids and diseases, they had to do whatever they could in order to get what they needed to live. There were innocents and bad people in all the various groups involved, and a failure to understand that is a sign of historical ignorance.

If you shelve an unfinished story for any length of time, it will start to change on you, perhaps dramatically. I hadn't drawn anything for a couple of weeks, so I drew Matthew... as he is in my head at the moment. He's an angry Navaho youth who admires the last of the Apache bands still giving the US Army hell, and, um, Robin Hood. His mother has married a white man (who is either a trader or an Indian Agent or something totally different... I dunno) after his father was shot and killed while "stealing" a ball of red yarn. He has a younger brother (David) and sister (we sooo needed more girls in this story), and he runs off to visit his grandmother in Navaholand often (The People have recently been returned to the Four Corners area). He also runs off to cause trouble (get vengeance for wrongs against Native people), and does his best not to get caught. His mother wants him to calm down and stay out of trouble, and is always worried about him.

I don't know the sister's name yet. They all have Christian/white names as part of the big push to "civilize the Indian." The Navaho prefer to keep their true names private anyway, to deter black witchcraft. She's something of a tom boy. I guess she could be "Sarah."

Oh yeah... I caught up on the Bleach manga last night. I remembered why I stopped reading it last year. It sucks. :/ I wish every shonnen manga out there would stop after the first 30-50 chapters (max), because after that the creator completely burns out and has no idea what to do other than some form of tournament fighting.

I want to use a lot more action sequences, but my word, if I someday end up with A vs B 20 times in a row with little or no plot advancement, please put me out of my misery.