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Tallchief, Maria

(Encyclopedia)Tallchief, Maria, 1925–2013, American ballerina, b. Fairfax, Okla., as Elizabeth Marie Tall Chief. Tallchief, of Osage descent, was trained both as a pianist and a dancer. Deciding on a career in ba...

Scudder, Samuel Hubbard

(Encyclopedia)Scudder, Samuel Hubbard, 1837–1911, American entomologist, b. Boston, grad. Williams (B.A., 1857) and Harvard (B.S., 1862). The founder of American insect paleontology and an authority on Orthoptera...

sun dance

(Encyclopedia)sun dance, ceremony typical of the Plains Indians of North America. The ceremony was performed in the summer and lasted from two to eight days. Some of the ceremony was secret. Smoking, fasting, and o...

snipe

(Encyclopedia)snipe, common name for a shore bird of the family Scolopacidae (sandpiper family), native to the Old and New Worlds. The common, or Wilson's snipe (Capella gallinago), also called jacksnipe, is a game...

Gans, Herbert

(Encyclopedia)Gans, Herbert găns [key], 1927–, American sociologist and educator, b. Cologne, Germany. He came to the United States in 1940 and became a U.S. citizen. In The Urban Villagers (2d ed. 1982), an imp...

sagebrush

(Encyclopedia)sagebrush, name for several species of Artemisia, deciduous shrubs of the family Asteraceae (aster family), particularly abundant in arid regions of W North America. The common sagebrush (A. tridentat...

marmot

(Encyclopedia)marmot, ground-living rodent of the genus Marmota, of the squirrel family, closely related to the ground squirrel, prairie dog, and chipmunk. Marmots are found in Eurasia and North America; the best-k...

side-necked turtle

(Encyclopedia)side-necked turtle, name for the long-necked turtle of the families Chelidae and Pelomedusidae, found only in the Southern Hemisphere. The neck in these two families is of a different structure from t...

hominy

(Encyclopedia)hominy [Algonquian], hulled corn with the germ removed and served either ground or whole. The pioneers in North America prepared it by soaking the kernels in weak wood lye until the hulls floated to t...

Avalon Peninsula

(Encyclopedia)Avalon Peninsula, 3,579 sq mi (9,270 sq km), SE N.L., Canada, on Newfoundland. It is nearly divided at its center by Conception Bay and St. Mary's Bay. The peninsula is the most densely populated part...
 

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