Lht’vsr-me’

Posted: January 22th, 2012 20:11pm

The name of the village in this painting is Lht’vsr-me’. Lht’vsr-me’ means “Sand-In-There”. The English name of this village is Cushing Creek.

Lht’vsr-me’ village was located south of Taa-’at-dvn (Crescent-City) along the flat sandy coast at the north end the palisades running south toward Wilson Creek cove.

This painting nicely illustrates the gable roof lines of the Dee-ni’ home and the traditional round doors. Round doors honored the door ways of the great Pileated Woodpecker.

This ink wash painting of Lht’vsr-me’ was rendered by Edwin Moore in 1854. This painting is the only known depiction of the Dee-ni’ town prior to the destruction of our civilization during the Dee-ni’ Holocaust from 1851 through 1856. Lht’vsr-me’ remained a village through the 1920s.

On July 4, 1869, Lht’vsr-me’ was the birth place of our ancestor matriarch Yuu-k’wvt-day-na. The English name of Yuu-k’wvt-day-na was Amelia Brown.
She lived onehundred- ten years. Yuu-k’wvt-day-na was the most important contributor to the early Dee-ni’ language texts.

Born just fifteen years after the world-shattering Yan’-daa-k’vt Massacre, her clear memory and articulate narratives came close to the yielding an encyclopedia of life as it was before the white invasion. Once when asked: “Grandma why haven’t you told us this before?” she answered; “Because no one ever asked me before!”

Submitted by Loren Me’-lash-ne Bommelyn