One of the peculiarities of the white race's presence in America is how little intention has been
applied to it. As a people, wherever we have been, we have never really intended to be. The
continent is said to have been discovered by an Italian who was on his way to India. The earliest
explorers were looking for gold, which was, after an early streak of luck in Mexico, always
somewhere farther on. Conquests and foundings were incidental to this search—which did not,
and could not, end until the continent was finally laid open in an orgy of gold seeking in the
middle of the last century. Once the unknown of geography was mapped, the industrial
marketplace became the new frontier, and we continued, with largely the same motives and with
increasing haste and anxiety, to displace ourselves—no longer with unity of direction, like a
migrant flock, but like the refugees from a broken ant hill. In our own time we have invaded
foreign lands and the moon with the high-toned patriotism of the conquistadors, and with the
same mixture of fantasy and avarice.
That is too simply put. It is substantially true, however, as a description of the dominant
tendency in American history. The temptation, once that has been said, is to ascend altogether
into rhetoric and inveigh equally against all our forebears and all present holders of office. To be
just, however, it is necessary to remember that there has been another tendency: the tendency to
stay put, to say, "No farther. This is the place." So far, this has been the weaker tendency, less
glamorous, certainly less successful. It is also the older of these tendencies, having been the
dominant one among the Indians.
The Indians did, of course, experience movements of population, but in general their relation to
place was based upon old usage and association, upon inherited memory, tradition, veneration.
The land was their homeland. The first and greatest American revolution, which has never been
superseded, was the coming of people who did not look upon the land as a homeland. But there
were always those among the newcomers who saw that they had come to a good place and who
saw its domestic possibilities. Very early, for instance, there were men who wished to establish
agricultural settlements rather than quest for gold or exploit the Indian trade. Later, we know that
every advance of the frontier left behind families and communities who intended to remain and
prosper where they were.
But we know also that these intentions have been almost systematically overthrown. Generation
after generation, those who intended to remain and prosper where they were have been
dispossessed and driven out, or subverted and exploited where they were, by those who were
carrying out some version of the search for El Dorado. Time after time, in place after place, these
conquerors have fragmented and demolished traditional communities, the beginnings of
domestic cultures. They have always said that what they destroyed was outdated, provincial, and
contemptible. And with alarming frequency they have been believed and trusted by their victims,
especially when their victims were other white people.
...Today, the most numerous heirs of the farmers of Lexington and Concord are
the little groups scattered all over the country whose names begin with "Save": Save Our Land,
Save the Valley, Save Our Mountains, Save Our Streams, Save Our Farmland. As so often before,
these are designated victims—people without official sanction, often without official
friends, who are struggling to preserve their places, their values, and their lives as they know
them and prefer to live them against the agencies of their own government which are using their
own tax moneys against them.
...I am talking about the idea that as many as possible should share in the ownership of the land and thus be bound to it by economic interest, by the investment of love and work, by family loyalty, by memory and tradition.
The old idea is still full of promise. It is potent with healing and with health. It has the power to turn each person away from the bigtime promising and planning of the government, to confront in himself, in the immediacy of his own circumstances and whereabouts, the question of what methods and ways are best. It proposes an economy of necessities rather than an economy based upon anxiety, fantasy, luxury, and idle wishing. It proposes the independent, free-standing citizenry that Jefferson thought to be the surest safeguard of democratic liberty. And perhaps most important of all, it proposes an agriculture based upon intensive work, local energies, care, and long-living communities—that is, to state the matter from a consumer's point of view: a dependable, long-term food supply.
-The Unsettling of America
To the white man America has only ever been viewed as resources. I keep watching what is happening in Dakota. I keep thinking about the natives, the nations who have never seen this land as anything but home. I want to fight for that. I want to protect that. How rare and how valuable a perspective in this world especially in this country. How I want to get in my car for another road trip across the country grab my sleeping bag and sand beside these people.
"The first and greatest American revolution, which has never been superseded, was the coming of people who did not look upon the land as a homeland." This revolution is still being fought today. We are exactly as our ancestors.
We will never be able to see the land the way indigenous people groups see the land so long as we see no value in rooting ourselves in our place our community.
I keep thinking what makes this land, this water so important to the Native Americas? Why can't we as a nation and our government see what they see.
"the tendency to stay put, to say, "No farther. This is the place."" Americans never stay put. We never invest. We move, we move where their might be gold. We move where their might be fur trading, we move where there might be jobs, we move to the hip sexy city of the moment. We don't give a fuck about a place. Land isn't hope its a resource it's something to be used for luxury, recreation, and entertainment.
Let's flood the beach front property, lets crowd and pollute the oceans but look how tan we are look how we spend our weekends at the beach relaxing.
Let's flood the mountain towns, lets level the hills to make room for more parking, more campsites. Let's destroy the wildlife pushing it back but look how interesting our instagrams are look how we send our weekends in the wilderness free.
What cost are we paying for our selfish desires for our one life. We live in a yolo culture thinking only of our own comfort our own pleasures, yes we may have to level another forest but more people want to uproot leave their land for a more sexy zip code.
What would it be like to stay placed? To invest in a land?
Homeland is where our fathers are buried.
It's where our parents sheltered us.
It's where we learned to respect the very land we need so that both can continue to exist.
This land, this river has been sacred and important to this people group LONG before Europeans knew this part of the world even existed. This land and this river could very well have been worshiped and respected longer than the Pyramids have stood. Longer than the Jews celebrating Passover. Longer than American celebrate the 4th of July.
How ancient, how precious this place is to these people.
How terrible a thought it could be destroyed in the name of progress and comfort.
So that we could have cheap transportation out to these vacation wilderness areas we are destroying to visit.
Ohio is home. I know it isn't where my ancestors are originally from. I know the original nations of this land have been pushed off long ago. But this is where I was born. It's where my grandfather is buried. To move to another place, to again continue the cycle of uprooting would be to press reset on the opportunity to love and worship a place, land the way these protesters do. To one day worship and fight for a piece of earth how beautiful and how valuable a cause. What would our planet, our culture look like if we were all as placed, as dependent on our land as these people?
It's worth fighting for and it's worth deepening my roots for.
Ohio is home.
Everything - Ben Howard