Dale Stewart & Bayou Woman on “Nature’s Edge”
Last month was a busy one, and as I mentioned in a previous post, I had a visit from this gentleman, Dale Stewart. Hailing originally from Lake Charles, LA and having grown up in Lafayette, LA, his bayou country roots run deep. Now living in North Carolina, Dale finds himself being drawn back to his home state.
Dale is known as a naturalist, conservationist, and explorer having paddled remote places like the Amazon River, living with indigenous people along the way. Most recently, in 2012, he paddled the Native American Water Trail of Tears. Starting in Chattanooga, Tennessee, he made a solo paddle from there all the way to Ft. Gibson, Oklahoma. The four rivers that make up this water trail are the Tennessee, Ohio, Mississippi, and Arkansas rivers. He’s written a book about that expedition titled “Four Rivers – One Man’s Journey Retracing the Water Trail of Tears”. I will let you know when it is released.
Dale is quite a story teller and mesmerized me with his vivid descriptions of the scenes and events surrounding some of his travels. I guess I’ve never met a real, live explorer before who has even been featured in documentary feature films broadcast on networks like National Geographic and Discovery Planet, just to name two. It’s his Water Trail of Tears expedition that most intrigued me, though, and is the very reason his heart has turned toward home with a focus on the Houma Indians.
I’m pretty sure he found me through this blog and contacted me to see how much I knew about the Houma and to see if I could possibly help him get in touch with them. Well, it just so happens that I married a Houma Indian and all five of our children are “card-carrying” Houmas, so yes, I know a few of them and a little about them. I proceeded to set him up with interviews for his upcoming radio show series about the Houma Indians and how the wetland loss has impacted their lives.
He recorded enough interviews for his series on his Asheville-based radio show called “Nature’s Edge”. But before it was all said and done, he wanted to interview me for the show. Well, I finally agreed, and I’m posting that radio show for you here. (And I’m just going to go ahead and put this out there and see how y’all respond: My friend Kim has been after me for several years to record podcasts to post on this blog. Now that I’ve been doing the Hunt, Fish, Talk “live” radio show for three years, I am a little more confident that I just might be able to do that.) Now, back to Dale . . .
His radio show is now syndicated in quite a few cities and is gaining popularity among outdoor folks. He recently interviewed two folks I’ve seen on a recent episode of “Doomsday Preppers” . . . Survivor Jane and her husband Richard, known as the survival gardener. Now, how cool is that? Those interviews are available on the Nature’s Edge website, too.
Dale is planning a trip back down here so that he can paddle his kayak down our waterways and see the coastal land loss for himself. And if he can convince me to get back on my old fishing kayak, I just might accompany him on a leg or two of his journey. I’m looking forward to great things from this man; and hopefully, when it’s all said and done, there will finally be a documentary of some sort about our native people and wetland loss, helping our message reach people across the country.
Meanwhile, you can listen below to my recent interview with Dale (commercial-free!). I hope you enjoy it! (Man, I need to figure out how to talk without saying “uh”, “um”, and “you know”!!)
BW
[su_audio url=”https://bayouwoman.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Natures-Edge-Dale-Stewart-Bayou-Woman-2014.ogg” width=”50%”]
What a neat experience for you. I started listening, but then saw it’s forty minutes, so I’m going to have to put it off for a while. Maybe tomorrow morning. I do know people who listen to podcasts all the time. Since I don’t have any of the gadgetry that lets me listen “on the go,” I tend to ignore them. But I have gone so far as to download a few to my computer, so I know that can be done, too.
Being without a television, I’d not heard of the show “Doomsday Preppers.” My, goodness. What a way to live. Being prepared is a good thing. Even I’m smart enough to know that you need to stash some bottled Starbucks in case you can’t make coffee. But… uh… When the great EMP comes, or the Wookies take over the world, I’ll just wave goodbye. As long as I outlive my cat, it’s all good. 🙂
Oh, Linda, that we could all have such a great outlook! You made me laugh with your stocking of Starbucks (really?). I had to stop and think about the outliving your cat remark. Folks never want to outlive their kids, but your kitty can’t take care of herself if you’re gone. So, yes, I get it! The show is sometimes entertaining in that you see just how many crazies there are out there and then how many sane people are prepping and living off the grid. I just stumbled upon it one night, and it happened to be Survivor Jane, and Dale had told me all about her during his visit, so I was intrigued. What really interested me, though, was the secret survival garden her husband designed. Makes me wish I had done that on my 3 acres when I first moved here 18 years ago. Interesting stuff.
Dale Stewart sounds like an extremely interesting person to sit down and talk with. I’m sure you were enthralled; I know I would be.
Dang…. I always forget to do the math before hitting ‘post comment.’ lol
Chuckles….. I really had nothing to say.
Yes, Gue`, very interesting. I didn’t begin to scratch the surface of all the places he’s explored and/or paddled. Very nice person, too. He lives up on a mountain in NC how, but that’s still kind of far from you!!!
I enjoyed the read as usual and I feel that you will accomplish great things with your writing,radio,television and environmental work. Keep up the good work.
Thank you, Louise. It’s hard for me to know if my message is coming across, because I have so many things flying through my head that I want to say. And I get easily side tracked while talking–something I’ll have to work on. But listening to this will really help me polish things up I hope–because doing live radio shows, I don’t get to hear what blips and bloopers! Thanks for the kind words! (By the way, did you have time to listen to the radio recording?)
I can’t wait to listen to this! I’ve been waiting since my visit with you (and Dale). I’m just back from my trip so will do that this week. We need to do some catching up this week also!
Yes, indeed, let’s do catch up!
Maybe I need to pass on some of my fly fishing talents? Doc has got to get me on some better drugs for my issues. Decade be a great place to flay clousers at trout I suspect.
Oh blu’s fashion police genes want to know about Glenn’s shirt and where to get one?
Glenn, as in Swamp People Glenn? If so, I have no clue but can check in it for you!
oops Dale do not know what happened there….
The shirt I am wearing is a Bush or Safari Shirt from Orvis. http://www.orvis.com
Dale
Thanks I’ll look it up. Still not sure how Glenn showed up. Sorry.
it is called a bush or safari shirt sold by Orvis.com!
Having computer problems…I’ll try again. Still haven’t finished listening. What I’ve heard is good, though.
Yea! Third time was a charm!
Well, thanks for hanging in there and getting through it, Steffi!
You are so knowledgeable and articulate, Captain Wendy. That football field loss every hour is something that should be brought to the nation’s attention, and a class action lawsuit should be brought against the oil companies who dredged those canals through the marshes.
Interesting that you should mention lawsuit . . . . because one parish is doing just that, but it’s not class action. Plaquemines Parish is suing some of the bigger oil companies, and I guess this will set a precedent. I’m pretty certain, though, that my parish will never file such a suit because Oil is King and politics, government, and big oil are all tied together. Many of our lawmakers and politicians either own or owned oil companies and mineral cmpanies that caused much of the damage. Many of the canals were “permitted”, but the wherein lies the biggest violations that could have been rectified before we got to this point was the requiring of the canals to be “back filled” once they were no longer in use. That was supposed to be done, but many companies got away with not doing so. And here we sit . . . . . and that’s just the tip of a very large iceberg! Your comments are much appreciated, though!! It’s great hearing from you again!
This post doesn’t pertain to this particular news item but, I was looking thru Facebook posts from some friends and one had a link to weird things animals do. I clicked on it to watch some of them and imagine my surprise when one of the animals was a gorgeous, dark blue (almost black) bird doing a shadow dance! I really loved watching it and since you had posted about it recently, I knew what/why the bird was doing.
Oh, I’d love to see that again! How cool is that? Thanks for sharing, Cammy. Life has been incredibly busy down the bayou, but nothing worth photographing or writing about. Something better come up quick so I can write a new post. Either that, or I have to get very creative! But I do have a couple adventures coming up on the water this week, and hopefully I can get some good photos for y’all!