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RE: Yuba River Study / Thoughts on Mining and Repeating History
so many good ?s you brought up. living within context is a powerful thing for us all--- to live in place and witness cyclically and with historical context. personally i;ve been wondering at the osage indians, who used to live in these areas. there are arrow heads and spear points a plenty- most people i know have found some- and yet there are no indians. our place is still quite lush and we haven't faced the often damaging effects of industry (save the "living stock", cattle)...
There's probably some writing and art I could pour out of me to process the experience of living on an old mine. I'm still working on it.
that is a rich subject.... <3
As you get east of the Mississippi its a different story. I am SUPER fascinated by the politics of that, as the west has blown me open to the vivid present-ness of native displacement. It has been almost 200 years sooner here. The Ozarks used to be the frontier of the West, almost just as wild, even if there's less 'public lands'. I've also spent time in rural northern Kentucky, another 'Daniel Boone'esque wilderness area of the east. All these places have their stories, and I am continously fascinated by their unique stories and the people that have stories within them. The places and what has happened there, and how people relate to it, I feel like is what I am most getting at in my current projects.
I live in the boreal forest of northern Saskatchewan It is mostly Meti here although my closest town, which is a lumber town drove the natives out of town. I have connected with a First Nations woman trying to preserve some of the stories. It is fascinating. Really it is the First Nations who hold the stories of our land. There is where you will find the stories of the land which has now become your stories
fascinating. and said- about the natives getting driven out of town. so many people don't know about that reality, and how it plays out even still.
Yes, there is such a difference in the attitudes and feeling between our lumbering town and the neighboring town which is right close to the reserve. I love the native culture and I always wonder why there is often an air of oppression around many of the communities but then I look back to our history and they were an oppressed people. Many are taking back their culture, learning from their elders and returning to a better way of life. All the more power to them!
definitely oppressed. Their land was taken and others have been exploiting it for $... and all of the things that then come on top of that from western civilization- alcohol, sugar, flour. changes life forever. its so complex. Though the story is incomplete, I love reading Stephen Ambrose's book about Lewis and Clark- "Undaunted Courage." For me, it opened my eyes up to the nuances of how colonialists interacted with natives from the beginning when the idea was that they were just going to 'trade.'
Thanks for the book suggestion I love to read stories of our history.