Leflore County Research Articles

Pre-Columbian Freshwater Mussel Assemblages from the Tallahatchie River in the Lower Mississippi River Alluvial Basin, U.S.A.

Abstract: The Tallahatchie River, Mississippi, southeastern U.S.A., is a medium-sized waterway originating in the North Central Hills and flowing into the Mississippi Alluvial Plain physiographic province. Although the river's molluscan fauna remains relatively poorly studied, a survey by Haag and Warren (2007) of Lower Lake, an impounded, regulated segment of the Little Tallahatchie River high in the drainage, revealed a freshwater mussel assemblage that was surprisingly diverse and healthy given current stream management practices. Mussel assemblages from three prehistoric sites in Leflore County, Mississippi, further downstream on the main Tallahatchie River, yielded 32,303 valves representing 41 taxa, including 24 new river records, one of which, Quadrula fragosa (Conrad, 1835), represents a new state record and a notable range extension for this species. Comparison with modern data shows that about twice as many species existed in the waterway prior to Historic-era impacts, including five currently l...

Romanticizing the Rough South: Contemporary Cultural Nakedness and the Rise of Grit Lit

Romanticizing the Rough SouthContemporary Cultural Nakedness and the Rise of Grit Lit Zackary Vernon (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution The burgeoning success of Grit Lit is a direct result of a regional and national obsession with authenticity. In the midst of global homogenization, readers are increasingly drawn to narratives about enclaves that have or appear to have retained certain hallmarks of cultural distinctiveness. Levee on the Tallahatchie, Panola County, Mississippi, March 2016. All photographs by Chris Fowler. [End Page 77] The past three decades have seen a steady rise in the popularity of “Grit Lit”—a genre largely shaped by white male authors who are from, or at the very least write convincingly about, working-class communities, usually within the context of the U.S. South. In The Companion to Southern Literature, Robert Gingher explains that “Grit Lit” is the “facetious shorthand for fiction devoted to the rough edges (‘grit’) of life.” If in 2002, when Gingher articulated this definition, the moniker Grit Lit was used facetiously, that is certainly not the case today. Now, contemporary writers flash the label proudly; and literary presses, book purveyors, and fan websites rely on it to promote books published by writers of the South who inhabit or once inhabited the region’s poorest or most culturally marginalized spaces. For example, the University of South Carolina Press proudly markets the grittiness of their two Rough South anthologies, and the website goodreads.com provides a list of “Popular Grit Lit Books,” which currently features 570 volumes. The burgeoning success of Grit Lit is a direct result of a regional and national obsession with authenticity. In the midst of global homogenization, readers are increasingly drawn to narratives about enclaves that have or appear to have retained certain hallmarks of cultural distinctiveness. In the South, one such enclave—be it a physical, social, or class-based space—is the “Rough South,” and fictional narratives purportedly reflecting its authenticity appear tantalizing to audiences comprised predominantly of educated and middle-class consumers.1 The rise in Grit Lit’s popularity needs to be investigated further in order to determine why exactly the reading class seems to relish the second-hand experience of the Rough South. Grit Lit: A Rough South Reader (2012), the first and, to date, only collection of Rough South prose, contains the following subject matter: dog fights in Tim McLaurin’s Keeper of the Moon; late-night shoot-outs in Rick Bragg’s Ava’s Man; a motorcycle-riding madman in Barry Hannah’s “Ride, Fly, Penetrate, Loiter”; a drunken negligent mother in Larry Brown’s “Samaritans”; serial rapists in Dorothy Allison’s “River of Names”; a gun-wielding father and his “waterhead” son in Lewis Nordan’s The Sharpshooter Blues; flea market vendors and con artists in George Singleton’s “Jacksonville”; snake-handling Pentecostals in Lee Smith’s Saving Grace; boisterous moonshine-drinking prisoners in Robert Morgan’s “Sleepy Gap”; meth dealers in Daniel Woodrell’s Winter’s Bone; marijuana growers in Ron Rash’s “Speckled Trout”; and a car-stealing Lynyrd Skynyrd fan in Ann Pancake’s “Redneck Boys.” While these working-class narratives expand the literary canon, they also seem to codify a particular working-class identity in the name of southern authenticity.2 Attempts to locate “authentic” southern identities are by no means new. The scholarly equivalent of handwringing over identity in the South has existed as long as the idea of “the South” itself, and it has figured in ideological projects ranging from the justification of slavery, secession, and Jim Crow to the myth of southern [End Page 78] Click for larger view View full resolution The first and, to date, only collection of Rough South prose contains the following subject matter: dog fights in Tim McLaurin’s Keeper of the Moon; late-night shoot-outs in Rick Bragg’s Ava’s Man; a motorcycle-riding madman in Barry Hannah’s “Ride, Fly, Penetrate, Loiter”; a gun-wielding father and his “waterhead” son in Lewis Nordan’s The Sharpshooter Blues; flea market vendors and con artists in George Singleton’s “Jacksonville”; and snake-handling Pentecostals in Lee Smith’s Saving Grace. Leflore County, Mississippi, March 2015. exceptionalism...

The Petrographic Analysis of Sherds from the Craig Mound at the Spiro site (34Lf40), the Moore #3/Ainsworth site (34Lf31), and the Geren site (34Lf36), LeFlore County, Oklahoma

James A. Brown commissioned James W. Porter to carry out a preliminary assessment of the paste of sherds from the Spiro site (34Lf40), as well as sherds from the nearby Geren (34Lf36) and Moore (34Lf31) sites. According to Brown, Porter’s goal was to “make assessments of the clay mineralogy and petrography of thin sections,” specifically with an “interest in discriminating between (1) grog and grit temper and (2) shell and grog temper with shell inclusions.” Twenty-nine thin sections were prepared, 27 from sherds from the Craig Mound, and one sherd each from the Moore/ Ainsworth and Geren sites, both not far from Spiro. Shortly after Ferring and Perttula completed petrographic studies of red-slipped pottery from sites in Oklahoma and Texas, Brown offered to send the thin-sections from his Spiro area studies to Ferring for more detailed petrographic studies. This he did sometime in 1987, but the 29 thin-sections were never fully studied, and they languished for years at the University of North Texas. In 2012, Ferring relocated the thin-sections and corresponding sherds and sent them to Perttula to complete the petrographic analysis of the Spiro area sherd series. The results of the petrographic analysis of a total of 23 of the 29 thin-sections are discussed in this article; there are provenience issues with the other six thin-sections.

Geographic and racial variation in asthma prevalence and emergency department use among Medicaid-enrolled children in 14 southern states

Background: Despite evidence-based prevention and practice guidelines, asthma prevalence, treatment, and outcomes vary widely at individual and community levels. Asthma disproportionate/ly affects low-income and minority children, who comprise a large segment of the Medicaid population. Methods: 2007 Medicaid claims data from 14 southern states was mapped for 556 counties to describe the local area variation in 1-year asthma prevalence rates, emergency department (ED) visit rates, and racial disparity rate ratios. Results: One-year period prevalence of asthma ranged from 2.8% in Florida to 6.4% in Alabama, with a median prevalence rate of 4.1%. At the county level, the prevalence was higher for Black children and ranged from 1.03% in Manatee County, FL, to 21.0% in Hockley County, TX. Black–White rate ratios of prevalence ranged from 0.49 in LeFlore County, MS, to 3.87 in Flagler County, FL. Adjusted asthma ED visit rates ranged from 2.2 per 1000 children in Maryland to 16.5 in Alabama, with a median Black–White ED-visit rate ratio of 2.4. Rates were higher for Black children, ranging from 0.80 per 1000 in Wicomico County, MD, to 70 per 1000 in DeSoto County, FL. Rate ratios of ED visits ranged from 0.25 in Vernon Parish, LA, to 25.28 in Nelson County, KY. Conclusions and relevance: Low-income children with Medicaid coverage still experience substantial variation in asthma prevalence and outcomes from one community to another. The pattern of worse outcomes for Black children also varies widely across counties. Eliminating this variation could substantially improve overall outcomes and eliminate asthma disparities.

A New Species of Eimeria (Apicomplexa: Eimeriidae) from the Northern Myotis, Myotis septentrionalis (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae), in Oklahoma

During September 2004, 4 adult northern myotis, Myotis septentrionalis, were collected from LeFlore County, Oklahoma (n = 2), and Logan (n = 1) and Yell (n = 1) counties, Arkansas, and their feces examined for coccidian parasites. Three of 4 bats (75%) were passing oocysts of Eimeria spp. Oocysts of Eimeria tumlisoni n. sp. were subspherical, 17.6 × 16.8 (16-19 × 14-18) µm with a shape index of 1.0 (1.0-1.1). A micropyle and oocyst residuum were absent, although 1-2 bilobed polar granules were often present. Sporocysts were ovoidal, 10.5 × 5.9 (9-12 × 5-7) µm with a shape index of 1.8 (1.6-2.0). A Stieda body was present, but substieda and parastieda bodies were absent. A sporocyst residuum was present consisting of compact to dispersed granules between the sporozoites. The sporozoites were elongate, with subspherical anterior refractile body and spherical posterior refractile body; a nucleus was not discernable. This is the second coccidian reported from this host and the first instance of a bat coccidian reported from Oklahoma. We also document a new geographic record for Eimeria catronensis in Oklahoma and provide an emended description.

Mammals from Le Flore County, Oklahoma

We report five new records of mammals for Le Flore County, Oklahoma, and additional records of Sorex longirostris for the state. Records for 14 other species, some not reported from the county or state in decades, provide new information on distributions in southeastern Oklahoma.

Hartshorne coal rank applied to Arkoma Basin coalbed methane activity, Oklahoma, USA

Coal rank, generalized for all coal beds at or near the surface, in the eastern Oklahoma coalfield has been known since 1915. Near the surface (depths <305m, <1000ft), coal rank increases from high volatile bituminous to low volatile bituminous from west to east in the Arkoma Basin in Oklahoma. The rank of subsurface (depths >305m, >1000ft) coals in Arkoma Basin coalbed methane (CBM) prospects was previously unknown. A new Hartshorne coal (Middle Pennsylvanian) rank map is based on mean maximum vitrinite reflectance values of 0.76% to 2.41% Rmax from 70 coal samples from vertical depths of 0 (surface) to 1327m (4355ft). Hartshorne coal rank in the subsurface increases from high-volatile bituminous to semianthracite from west to east in the Arkoma Basin in Oklahoma. Bituminous rank boundaries changed considerably from earlier surface rank maps (primarily by increasing the area of medium volatile bituminous rank coal in the subsurface) and revealed a previously unknown semianthracite rank area. This discrepancy is significant because the rank of deep (>305m, >1000ft) coal resource assessments and CBM exploration projects have been based on shallow coal rank assignments.A total of 2635 Hartshorne (Hartshorne, Lower Hartshorne, and Upper Hartshorne) CBM wells have been completed in Oklahoma since 1988. Most (1610) wells are horizontal with lateral lengths ranging from 4 to 1498m (14 to 4914ft; an average of 669m [2195ft]). Coal in most Hartshorne CBM wells is medium volatile bituminous rank. Hartshorne coal is semianthracite rank in about 160 CBM wells in Le Flore County. The four Hartshorne CBM wells with the highest initial potential (IP) gas rates (48 to 65 thousand cubic meters per day, Mcmd; 1.7 to 2.3 million cubic feet per day, MMcfd) are medium volatile bituminous rank from horizontal wells in Haskell and Pittsburg counties. IP gas rates<28.3 Mcmd (<1 MMcfd) in low volatile bituminous and semianthracite rank Hartshorne horizontal CBM wells may be low due to complications in drilling into high rank coals with cleat spacing <1cm, to stimulation differences, or to gas migration into adjacent sandstone channels.

Metacercaria of Alloglossidium corti (Digenea: Macroderoididae) from 3 Species of Crayfish (Decapoda: Cambaridae) in Arkansas and Oklahoma, U.S.A

In total, 80 crayfishes, including 25 Orconectes acares, 8 Orconectes palmeri longimanus, 13 Orconectes meeki meeki, 2 Orconectes neglectus neglectus, 21 Orconectes ozarkae, 4 Orconectes williamsi, 4 Procambarus liberorum, and 3 Procambarus tenuis, were collected from several counties in Arkansas and LeFlore County, Oklahoma (P. tenuis only), and specimens were examined for antennal gland parasites. Three (3.8%) were found to harbor metacercariae of Alloglossidium corti (Lamont, 1921) Van Cleave and Mueller, 1932, including 1 (4%) O. acares, 1 (12.5%) O. p. longimanus, and 1 (67%) P. tenuis. We report 3 new host records for A. corti and the first report of any helminth in these crustacean hosts.

From Stokely Carmichael to Kwame Ture

The young black boy—maybe sixteen years old if his smooth young face is a measure— stands handcuffed in a corner of the store while two policemen—one white and one black— take down particulars; the black policeman talking to him while scribbling into a small notebook. “I told these boys,” the woman behind the counter—a black woman—tells the white policeman who is entering notes into his pad too, “that if they keep coming in here trying to steal I was going to call the cops.” She was scooping up cigarettes, gum, candy, and other counter items, handing them to a helper who was putting them beneath the counter. The store wasn’t closing; it’s just that the neighborhood wasn’t changing either. Black power in Greenwood, Mississippi, helped make possible the black-owned gas station and convenience store where this arrest took place. In the 1950s, Amzie Moore, head of the NAACP in neighboring Bolivar County, had the only black-owned gas station in the Mississippi Delta. He refused to put up “white” and “colored” signs and seated in his home’s bay window with a rifle, floodlights pouring over the backyard, at least when we were there, he kept watch to protect himself, us, and his house from the attack he was certain would be coming from outraged whites one night. Black power has desegregated Greenwood’s police force, elected blacks to the city’s Board of Aldermen, and made it possible for a black man like me to enter the Leflore County courthouse in Greenwood and have a white clerk politely ask, “May I help you, sir?” The questions surrounding young boys like the one I saw being arrested at the convenience store remain unanswered. Black Power. Although Richard Wright wrote a book with that title, history will always associate the words with Stokely Carmichael, who on June 16, 1966, while continuing a protest march begun by James Meredith, spoke them in a Greenwood park not far from the gas station where years later I was witnessing that young boy’s arrest. Earlier that June day in 1966, Stokely too had been arrested. “This is the 27th time . . .” he told the crowd of 1,000. “I ain’t going to jail no more. . . . We been saying freedom for six years and we ain’t got nothin’. What we gonna start saying now is Black Power!” he roared to amens, clapping, and stomping feet. He stood, eyes blazing, fist clenched with one finger pointing, like a wrathful prophet stepped straight from the pages of the Old Testament as Willie Ricks, a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee organizer, leapt to the platform. “BLACK POWER!” Ricks shouted out, “BLACK POWER! What do you want?” “BLACK POWER!” the crowd responded with a force that startled a press corps expecting to hear the tones of we shall overcome. And Stokely Carmichael exploded onto the national stage and into the national consciousness as yet another unexpected black leader whose anger and dissatisfaction seemed to come out of nowhere.

The Vascular Flora of Hale Scout Reservation, LeFlore County, Oklahoma

The Hale Scout Reservation is located in the Ouachita Mountains of southeastern Oklahoma, a region of high plant diversity in the state. A vascular plant inventory yielded 463 species of vascular plants in 288 genera and 99 families. The largest families were the Asteraceae (with 65 species) and Poaceae (56). The flora consisted of 120 annuals, 1 biennial, and 342 perennials. Forty-two non-native species were collected, representing 8.8% of the flora. Sixteen species tracked by the Oklahoma Natural Heritage Inventory were present: Amorpha ouachitensis (S1), Aristolochia serpentaria (S1), Baptisia nuttalliana (S2), Brachyelytrum erectum (S1), Brasenia schreberi (S1), Carex ouachitana (S1), Chionanthus virginicus (S2), Clematis crispa (S1), Didiplis diandra (S1S2), Galium arkansanum (S2), Houstonia ouachitana (S1), Juncus repens (S1), Modiola caroliniana (S2), Monotropa hypopithys (S1), Muhlenbergia bushii (S1), and Ribes cynosbati (S2) (Oklahoma Natural Heritage Inventory, 2010).

Ambiguous Adventure: African Americans and the American South

Ambiguous Adventure: African Americans and the American South Lovalerie King (bio) Emmett Till in Literary Memory and Imagination. Ed. Harriet Pollack and Christopher Metress. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 2008. x + 262 pp. $22.50 paper. I Don’t Hate the South: Reflections on Faulkner, Family, and the South. By Houston A. Baker, Jr. New York: Oxford UP, 2007. xviii + 198 pp. $125.00 cloth, $25.00 paper. Emmett Till in Literary Memory and Imagination examines representations of the relationship between history and memory in literary works produced since Till’s lynching in 1955. The eleven selections use essays, poetry, drama, and fiction as source material, while providing substantial evidence of the murder’s immediate and lasting impact on southern, national, and international cultural memory. The introduction recalls the 1998 James Byrd lynching in Jasper, Texas, before providing basic details about the Till murder and trial. Christopher Metress examines lynching as cultural trauma in “On That Third Day He Rose: Sacramental Memory and the Lynching of Emmett Till.” He also considers representations of Till as a redemptive figure whose murder is thus refigured as a sacrificial act. Other essays consider Anne Moody’s Coming of Age in Mississippi (1968), James Baldwin’s Blues for Mr. Charlie (1964), Aimé Césaire’s elegiac “On the State of the Union” (1960), Bebe Moore Campbell’s Your [End Page 134] Blues Ain’t Like Mine (1992), and Lewis Nordan’s Wolf Whistle (1993). Suzanne W. Jones’s “Childhood Trauma and its Reverberations” examines Campbell’s process of using the blues to move beyond the collective trauma that Till’s murder and the public spectacle of his horribly abused body set in place. Taking a different approach, Donnie McMahand compares Nordan’s work to Campbell’s in “(Dis)embodying the Delta Blues: Wolf Whistle and Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine.” McMahand demonstrates how two such dissimilar works actually make use of very similar strategies in their representations of Emmett Till. Metress’s annotated bibliography of over 140 literary and musical titles completes the collection. Some of the best essays focus on the work of such poets as Langston Hughes, Nicolás Guillén, Audre Lorde, and Gwendolyn Brooks. Excellent selections by Vivian May and Laura Dawkins analyze Brooks’s “A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile, a Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon” and “The Last Quatrain of the Ballad of Emmett Till.” May analyzes parallel constructions in each poem, while Dawkins considers how the poems revisit sites of memory to serve the project of counter-history that challenges the dominant society’s official history. While some works receive more attention than others, resulting in a slightly off-balance volume, this flaw is offset by the better-than-average quality of the essays. Overall, the collection is a well-conceived and executed project that will be valuable for students and scholars across several disciplines. Indeed, it closes with a brief but important statement on the 464-page FBI report concerning the trial of Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, Till’s alleged (and later admitted) murderers. The FBI report contains a retyped transcript from the original trial as well as that of the February 27, 2007 decision in LeFlore County, Mississippi, in which the grand jury declined to indict either defendant in Till’s 1955 murder. These primary documents remain important sources for research and scholarship. Emmett Till’s name is not invoked as often as William Faulkner’s in Houston A. Baker, Jr.’s I Don’t Hate the South, but Till’s presence is palpable. The two epigraphs that open Baker’s text identify interconnected threads in the author’s reflections on modernity, his life, family, professional career, and the American South and establish ambivalence and kinship as tropes. The epigraph from Natasha Trethewey’s “Pastoral” in Native Guard (2006) recalls a dream in which the speaker is posing for a photograph with the Fugitive Poets when Robert Penn Warren directs the group to say “race.” The speaker, whose father is white and rural, is frozen in blackface. The other poets’ question—“You don’t hate [End Page 135] the South?”—connects Trethewey’s poem to Baker’s second epigraph: Quentin Compson’s...

The Vascular Flora of The Cucumber Creek Nature Preserve, Leflore County, Oklahoma

Abstract The Cucumber Creek Nature Preserve is located in the Ouachita Mountains of southeastern Oklahoma, a region of high plant diversity in the state. An inventory of the preserve yielded 341 taxa of vascular plants in 231 genera and 98 families. The largest families were the Asteraceae (46) and Poaceae (27). The flora consisted of 52 annuals, 1 biennial, 287 perennials, and 95 woody taxa. Sixteen exotic species were collected, representing 4.7% of the flora. Twenty-five species were present that are tracked by the Oklahoma Natural Heritage Inventory: Actaea pachypoda, Carex cephalophora, C. latebracteata, C. ouachitana, C. striatula, Castanea pumila var. ozarkensis, Chionanthus virginicus, Dirca palustris, Fraxinus quadrangulata, Galium arkansanum, Halesia tetraptera, Hamamelis vernalis, H. virginiana, Hypericum gentianoides, Ilex opaca, Iris cristata, Magnolia tripetala, Mitchella repens, Panax quinquefolius, Piptochaetium avenaceum, Polygala polygama, Ribes cynosbati, Spigelia marilandica, Stachys e...

Documentation of the Native American Ceramic Vessels from Northeastern Texas, Southern Arkansas, and Eastern Oklahoma in the Boyce Smith Museum in Troup, Texas

The Boyce Smith Museum opened in 1968 with the purpose of displaying a large collection of Historic artifacts as well as Native American artifacts collected and/or purchased over the years by Mr. Boyce Smith of Troup, Texas, now deceased. After learning of the museum in 2002, and taking a short visit to the museum at that time, it was apparent that the Boyce Smith Museum contained an important collection of Native American ceramic vessels that warranted documentation. With the permission of Jo Beth Smith, the wife of Boyce Smith, and their son Rial Smith, we returned to the Boyce Smith Museum on December 10-11, 2007, to document 157 ceramic vessels from Caddo sites in eight counties in Northeastern Texas (n=136), Caddo and Mississippian sites in five counties in southern Arkansas (n=20), and from the Spiro site in LeFlore County, in eastern Oklahoma (n=1) (Figure 1 and Table 1). In almost all instances, the only available provenience information for the vessels in the Boyce Smith Museum is the state and county, although in a very few cases, a specific site and/or location within a county is included in Mr. Smith’s collection notes.

Responses of Hyalella azteca to a Pyrethroid Mixture in a Constructed Wetland

Constructed wetlands used to mitigate pesticide runoff from agricultural fields into receiving systems (e.g., lakes, rivers, streams) have been successful in reducing concentrations of non-point source pollutants such as agricultural insecticides (Moore et al., 2002; Leistra et al., 2003; Bouldin et al., 2005). Such wetlands also have important functions in enhancing the water quality and ecological values (Moore et al., 2002), and different phases (i.e., aqueous, sediment and detritus) have separate roles, as either sinks or sources, in determining effectiveness of wetlands in mitigating pesticide toxicity. For these reasons, the importance of elucidating potential effectiveness of wetlands in reducing pesticide toxicity to aquatic biota exposed to these different phases needs to be addressed. The pyrethroid insecticides, k-cyhalothrin and cyfluthrin, were used as model contaminants in a constructed wetland located in Leflore County, Mississippi, USA, designed to mitigate runoff from an agricultural field. Pyrethroids are used on a variety of agricultural crops in Mississippi, however most applications are primarily with cotton (Gossypium sp.) (USDA, 2004). Approximately 3,150 kg of k-cyhalothrin and 10,350 kg of cyfluthrin were applied in Mississippi in 2003 and, as a result, may contribute to non-point source contamination of aquatic environments (USDA, 2004). This study examined the use of a constructed wetland to mitigate ecological impacts of a simulated pyrethriod mixture (k-cyhalothrin and cyfluthrin) in runoff from agricultural fields to receiving aquatic systems by using 48 h aqueous, detrital and sediment bioassays with the freshwater test organism, Hyalella azteca.

English

Several new passive treatment systems have been constructed to treat acid mine drainage (AMD) in the Mid-Continent Region. This poster discusses the construction and preliminary results of one new site—LeBosquet 064 2004 Clean Streams Reclamation Project. As a part of ongoing technical assistance with the Oklahoma Conservation Commission’s (OCC) Abandoned Mine Lands Program, the Office of Surface Mining (OSM), Mid-Continent Region (MCR) assisted in the design and evaluation of the treatment system. The project site was an artesian seep located 4 miles (5 km) west of the town of Fanshawe, in LeFlore County, Oklahoma. Preliminary water quality results indicated that the combination of an anoxic limestone drain system and a surface flow treatment wetland has been effective at mitigating the adverse impact associated with the AMD. Additional

COWPEA TOLERANCE TO SANDEA HERBICIDE

Southernpea is a major vegetable crop in Arkansas and Oklahoma for commercial production and home gardens. Complete weed control is necessary for this crop in commercial production to keep the peas free of contaminants and achieve high harvest efficiency. Several weeds like pigweed, cocklebur, velvetleaf, lambsquarters, hophornbeam copperleaf, nightshade, nutsedge, and morninglories are difficult to control in this crop because of limited herbicide options. Sandea (halosulfuron) is an excellent herbicide for nutsedge control and has activity on most of the weeds mentioned above. It has both soil and foliar activity. Sandea is labeled for several vegetable crops and southernpea may have enough tolerance to Sandea to warrant a label expansion. Experiments were conducted in Arkansas and Oklahoma between 2002 and 2005 to determine the tolerance of southernpea to Sandea and its efficacy on some weed species. In Oklahoma, trials were conducted in LeFlore County and at the Bixby Research Station in 2002 and 2003. Treatments consisted of various herbicides applied preemergence (PRE) or postemergence (POST), among which were some Sandea treatments. The doses of Sandea tested ranged from 0.024 to 0.048 lb a.i./A with some treatments applied with Basagran (bentazon), POST. Preemergence treatments were applied at 20 GPA and POST treatments at 30 GPA. Experimental units were arranged in randomized complete block design with four replications. The cultivar used was Early Scarlet. Plots were comprised of four rows, spaced either 30 or 36 inches, depending on location, 15 ft long. The crop at Bixby was irrigated, but not at LeFlore. In Arkansas, two experiments were conducted in 2005 at the Vegetable Station in Kibler. One experiment was setup in a split-plot design, with four replications, with cultivar as mainplot and Sandea treatments as subplot. Eleven advanced breeding lines and Early Scarlet were used. Four Sandea treatments, using doses of 0.048 and .096 lb ai/A applied either PRE, at 1 to 2-trifoliate (early POST), and at 3- to 4-trifoliate (late POST) were tested. The second experiment compared the responses of 16 advanced breeding lines and Early Scarlet to 0.096 lb a.i./A Sandea applied PRE. Plot size at Kibler consisted of 4 rows, spaced 36 inches, 20 ft long. Herbicide treatments were applied at 20 GPA spray volume and the crop was sprinkler irrigated as needed. In Oklahoma, the commercial rate of Sandea (0.032 to 0.048 lb a.i.) did not cause any injury to southernpea when applied PRE regardless of availability of irrigation. However, when applied POST, significant stunting (up to about 20%) of plants was observed in both locations. This level of injury did not cause significant yield loss. The trial at Bixby could not be harvested due to excessive pigweed biomass later in the season. Sandea controlled Palmer amaranth and carpetweed &gt;90% when applied PRE, but had no activity on these species when applied POST. Conversely, Sandea had excellent activity (100%) on common cocklebur when applied POST, but ineffective when applied PRE. Trials in Arkansas were strictly for tolerance evaluation so no weed control data was collected. In Arkansas, the PRE timing was also safer than POST when 0.096 lb ai Sandea was used. The 11 advanced lines tested in trial 1 were among the top 15 lines selected for tolerance to Sandea from a preliminary screen. These selected lines still showed different levels of tolerance to high rates of Sandea, but may not show any difference among each other at the recommended rates. The best lines were 00-609 and 00-178, which showed no yield reduction when treated with 0.096 lb ai Sandea PRE. All advanced lines had higher yield than Early Scarlet without herbicide treatment. In trial 2, 01-103, 01-180, and 01-181 had 0% to 10% yield loss when treated with 0.096 lb ai Sandea, PRE. All three had similar or greater yield than Early Scarlet. The commercial standard incurred about 20% to 30% yield loss from the high dose of Sandea applied PRE in both trials in Arkansas. Sandea is safe for cowpea, PRE at recommended doses. However, some advanced lines can tolerate high rates of Sandea. Some weeds are controlled by Sandea PRE, but not POST and vice versa.

Short-Term Effects of Riparian Disturbance on Desmognathus brimleyorum (Plethodontidae) at a Natural Spring in Oklahoma

In February 1996, the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service completed a renovation project at Horsethief Spring, LeFlore County, Oklahoma. This spring is located on the north face of Winding Stair Mountain along the Talimena Scenic Drive (State Highway 1; T3N R25E Sec. 7). Renovations included paving the existing parking area, installing a restroom facility and picnic site above the spring, resurfacing the existing horse trail that crosses just below the spring origin, reconstructing a stone wall next to the lower parking area, and removing riparian vegetation along the upper portion of the spring. The area of vegetation removal was approximately 0.1 acres. Although this may seem to be a small-scale disturbance, we were concerned about the potential impacts on sensitive salamander species that depend on the spring habitat.

Temporal and Spatial Patterns of Allelic Frequencies in Cotton Bollworm (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)

Abstract Temporal variation in allozyme frequencies at 10 allozyme loci was assessed by sampling six local populations of the cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa zea (Boddie), near cotton fields over 3 yr (1995–1997) in Leflore County, MS. Population structure over local and regional areas and changes in population structure over generations were analyzed using F-statistic estimators. There was low population differentiation at both local and regional scales, suggesting that extensive gene flow occurred within the spatial scale under investigation. Allele frequencies, heterozygosity, and the mean number of alleles per locus were stable over time and space. Measurements of population differentiation, FST, ranged from 0.0002 to 0.0072 over generations. However, there was no significant population subdivision when evaluated by bootstrapping over loci. Moreover, population differentiation as a whole and differentiation between regions was also very low, indicating that extensive gene flow occurs at both local and re...

Human Effigy Pipes from Spiro Mound, Leflore County, Oklahoma

Animal and human effigy tobacco pipes are not uncommon in Middle and Lower Mississippi culture sites, but are often rather crudely worked. However, the five human figurine pipes found during the University of Oklahoma - Works Project Administration excavation of the Spiro Mound are unusually perfect specimens of primitive stone sculpture and represent relatively finished examples of prehistoric art. The accompanying pen and ink sketches of these pipes give a general idea of the artistry they represent.

The Eufaula Mound: Contributions to the Spiro Focus

The main aim of the paper is the comparison of two archaeological sites, (1) the Eufaula site of McIntosh County, and (2) the Spiro site of Leflore County, Okla. Purpose of the comparison is to indicate the relationship between the 2 sites, thereby establishing a Spiro Focus, the ramifications and general affiliations of which will be suggested. The thesis is based on original research coming out of my experience as Project Superintendent of various units of the Oklahoma WP A Project. The Project, sponsored by the university of Oklahoma and directed by Dr. F.E. Clements, has carried on large scale excavations in Oklahoma since 1936. At that time the Spiro l\found group, in the east central part of the state, was opened up. In the two years from 1936 to 1938 a crew of 70 WP A laborers, under the direction of trained archaeologists, unearthed quantities of archeological material. The main bulk of material from the "Great Temple" Mound was excavated under the direction of Mr. Joe Finkelstein. 1 It was my privilege to analyze the material excavated by him. I also excavated the Spiro Village and a series of villages in the vicinity of the Mound group. 2 Both groups of data will be utilized.