Click here for a TIF photo of Tom Isern that is suitable for
printing. (1.5MB b&w photo)
NEWS for North Dakotans
Agriculture Communication, North Dakota State University
7 Morrill Hall, Fargo, ND 58105-5665
July 27, 2000
Most white histories of plains Indians end with Wounded Knee I, in 1890, assuming that with the suppression of the Ghost Dance and with resignation to reservation life, it was the end of Indian history. It wasn't, of course. It would be excessive to say that the best is yet to come, but certainly there is renewed life, demographically and economically, on the reservation today. I'm willing to venture the vision that should I be granted my three-score and ten, I will live to see the Indian reservations of the northern plains transformed into engines of regional renewal.
The Ghost Dance is still around, too, only people don't know they are doing it. On many occasions the past few years I've had the opportunity to discuss prospects for regional renewal in public forums on the northern plains, and invariably the same thing happens. I talk about the new people on the plains, people buying homes and businesses and, as they see it, a piece of the good life in Mayville or Pettibone. Then I notice some people are looking uncomfortable.
Finally one of them speaks up. Rather than beckoning these strangers into our midst, he says, wouldn't it be better to concentrate on persuading our own kids, now living in Minneapolis or Seattle, to come back? After all, we know they are good people, not trouble-makers. (This is a composite statement, but I'm not inventing any of it.)
This makes me weary, and sooner or later we'll all be worn out by it, because it's a Ghost Dance. Sure, some of our kids will come back, if they want to. Most of them won't. That's the way it is everywhere.
Over the past half-century we have spent a lot of time worrying about why people are leaving our region. It's a dumb question. The answer is, because they can. It's a free country. People leave all regions and are especially inclined to leave places where minus 30 F temperatures are common. The difference here is that not many replacements arrive.
Agricultural economists tell us that lack of profitability in agriculture is the root cause. Actually, I think the record will show that profitability in agriculture is the greater cause of out-migration. Farmers who are making money send their kids to college to become engineers or teachers, and away they go.
Ecologists tell us that we are in the process of reducing human enterprise down to the carrying capacity of a semiarid land. That explanation may have worked a half-century ago, but no more. So-called farm states on the plains are running budget surpluses in the middle of agricultural crises. The country no longer rises or falls with the commodity markets. Mean annual rainfall doesn't mean much anymore.
Political economists tell us we live in a colonial region exploited by the metropolis. Smell the coffee, folks. In an age of containerized transport and digital communications, there is no such thing as a hinterland, unless we say there is.
I was thinking about all this during a Chuck Suchy concert in Buffalo last week. I want you to think about this as a model, or maybe just a metaphor.
Buffalo has the Old Stone Church, a historic building that was falling down, a neglected resource. Then several strangers moved into town from out of state. They bought and rehabilitated a fine old residence, then became active in the local historical society and led the restoration of the old church as a community museum. That's just the beginning. With the museum as a focal point, other community activities crystallized. Chuck's concert was one example. Buffalo is still a quiet little town, but it's got life. Many people worked to bring this about, but newcomers were catalysts.
None of this would have happened if not for these strangers, nobody's kids, who showed up in town for no other reason than the desire for a piece of the good life as they defined it. I don't know about you, but I'm leaving the latchstring out and the porch light on. The country needs new blood.
###
Source: Tom Isern (701) 231-8339
Editor: Dean Hulse (701) 231-6136
Click here for a TIF photo of Tom Isern that is suitable for
printing.
(1.5MB b&w photo)
Click here for a TIF photo of Tom Isern wearing a hat that is
suitable for printing.
(1.3MB b&w photo)