At the 100th Meridian by Cheyenne Nimes
Associate nonfiction editor Roz Roseboro on today’s bonus collage essay: “At the 100th Meridian” challenges and re-positions the language of exploiters and oppressors, “facts,” phrases, and imagined responses in more than 200 entries that cumulatively create urgency and intensity. Cheyenne Nimes has woven a powerful indictment of a prevailing historical narrative.
At the 100th Meridian
1. The Niobrara River (pronounced /ˌnaɪ.əˈbrærə/, from the Ponca Ní Ubthátha kʰe pr onounced [ˈnĩ uˈbɫᶞaɫᶞa ˈkʰe], means “water spread-out horizontal-the.”
2. On the Niobrara area: “Sep 7, 1804—The [prairie dog's] toe nails [are] long, they have fine fur and the longer hairs is gray, it is Said that a kind of Lizard also a Snake reside with these animals. From earliest times, it has been known that prairie dogs do not live alone in their towns but, rather, serve as compliant hosts to many uninvited species.”
3. Many. Uninvited. Species.
4. “Niobrara was founded on June 7, 1856 at the confluence of the Niobrara and Missouri Rivers by a group of men headed by Dr. Benneville Yeakel Shelly. They marked their claim by building a log garrison on the banks of the Missouri.”
5. WHAT?
6. Please, say it again more distinctly. Who “founded”?
7. “Niobrara's beginning can be traced back to the year of 1856, when a group of men headed by a Dr. Benneville Yeakel Shelly marked their claim to an area on the banks of the Missouri.”
8. This story, every time it’s made itself known in history, has been nothing close to real.
9. Darker elements.
10. To such a simple statement, every telling.
11. Far darker elements.
12. 30% of the native freshwater fish species in North America are threatened, endangered, or of special concern.
13. Threatened natives.
14. Every serial killer has an AKA:
15. A paint-by-numbers picture John Wayne Gacy painted of himself as a clown he sold on EBAY for $3,000.
16. The person most likely to have committed the crime is the person no one mentions.
17. America the Beautiful.
18. “This picture, The Trail of Tears, was painted by Robert Lindneux in 1942. It commemorates the suffering of the Cherokee people under forced removal. If any depictions of the ‘Trail of Tears’ were created at the time of the march, they have not survived. Image Credit: The Granger Collection, New York.”
19. They have not survived. “The public version of the news or whatever event is never really what happened.” —Hunter S. Thompson.
20. Dramatization from the NET Television production of “The Trial of Standing Bear.” To order a copy of this program from NET Television, click here.
21. It is not visible. Unlike burning forests or invading sand dunes, falling water tables cannot be readily photographed. They are often discovered only when wells go dry. But more than half the world’s people live in countries where water tables are falling.
22. They have not survived, the depictions of “Trail of Tears.” Whoever’s left standing tends to get the last word in edgewise, that’s the word “history.”
23. And so, the generation of stories of what happened are fictions built on tradition built on fictions built on tradition. Horse thieves.
24. The predatory king of the Niobraran Sea was this fellow, Tylosaurus, a mosasaurid that reached lengths of up to 50 feet. It's a giant, air-breathing reptile, and is probably most comparable to a killer whale.
25. “I was not born in America, I was born on my land.”
26. The number of freshwater species has decreased faster than the decline of species on land or in the sea.
27. Taps.
28. Omaha Herald: “Sunday, Morning. May 15, 1879.”
“STANDING BEAR.”
_____
Hayt Will Use the Whole Power
of the Government to Hold Him.
_____
He Orders An Appeal to be Taken
From Judge Dundy’s Decision.
_____
WASHINGTON, May 14—The decision of
Judge Dundy at Omaha in the Standing Bear
habeas corpus case in which he virtually
declares Indians citizens with the right to
go where they please, regardless of treaty
stipulations is regarded by the government
as a heavy blow to the present Indian sys-
tem, that if sustained will prove extreme-
ly dangerous alike to whites and Indians.
If the power of the government to hold
Indians upon their reservations and to re-
turn them when they escape is denied, the
Indians will become a body of tramps
moving without restraint wherever they
please and exposed to attacks of frontier-
men without redress from the government.
The district attorney at Omaha has been
instructed to take the necessary steps to
carry the decision to higher courts.
Secretary Mc Crary, in conformity with
habeas corpus case, has directed that those
Indians be released.
29. Nervous like someone who goes to a great deal of trouble to explain an inconsequential event.
30. Specimenlike.
31. A touch of the devil, I don’t know what it was.
32. A miner’s pan with low-sloping sides.
33. Etcetera.
34. Since 1900, half the world’s wetlands have disappeared: “D-E-V-I-L-S. WHAT’S THAT SPELL? DEVILS! WHAT’S THAT SPELL? DEVILS!”
35. “The core of each DNA double helix is a column of water clusters. Copious amounts of water are organized in multiple layers at the surface of intracellular structural proteins and membranes.”
36. Detergents interfere with the bonds that form between water molecules at the surface.
37. Arms straight out to the sides, palms facing forward. Bring your arms together in front of you until your palms touch. Pray.
38. Trials:
Cherokee Nation v. Georgia · Worcester v. Georgia · Standing Bear v. Crook · Hodel v. Irving · Cobell v. Salazar · Talton v. Mayes · Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock.
39. Acts:
Indian Civil Rights Act · Civilization Act · Pueblo Lands Act · Native American Technical Corrections Act · American Indian Religious Freedom Act · Burke Act · Dawes Act · Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act · Indian Child Welfare Act · Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 · Indian Gaming Regulatory Act · Indian Intercourse Act · Indian Removal Act · Indian Reorganization Act · Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act · Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 · Public Law 280 · National Indian Gaming Commission · Native American gambling enterprises · Dawes Rolls · Bureau of Indian Affairs · Eagle feather law · Declaration of Indian Purpose.
40. The speed at which water moves is the current velocity. The Niobrara is challenging—its water flowing 2 to 3 miles an hour—and is at times an exciting canoe experience.
41. Nothing the Great Mystery placed in the land of the Indian pleased the white man, and nothing escaped his transforming hand. Wherever forests have not been mowed down, wherever the animal is recessed in their quiet protection, wherever the Earth is not bereft of four-footed life—that to him is an "unbroken wilderness.” —Standing Bear
42. No matter how much I explain, you people aren’t going to understand. A voice so far back hearing it is a haunting, and explanatory. With no echo.
43. Like water, something better than what it moves through.
44. “Between 1790 and 1830 the population of Georgia increased six-fold. The western push of the settlers created a problem. Georgians continued to take Native American lands and force them into the frontier. By 1825 the Lower Creek had been completely removed from the state under provisions of the Treaty of Indian Springs. By 1827 the Creek were gone.” You do not travel in the open.
45. Take Us To Your Water.
46. According to the Global Corruption Report 2008, in some countries corruption siphons off as much as 30% of the budget. By diverting funds from investment or operation and maintenance, corruption reduces access to water. According to estimates corruption can raise the investment costs of achieving water-and-sanitation-related MDG targets by almost $50 billion.
47. The stretch limousine bursts into flames.
48. o Native American Legends A-C
o Native American Legends D-H
o Native American Legends I-L
o Native American Legends M-O
o Native American Legends P-S
o Native American Legends T-U
o Native American Legends V-Z
49. “Cherokee had long called western Georgia home. The Cherokee Nation continued in their enchanted land until 1828. It was then that the rumored gold, for which De Soto had relentlessly searched, was discovered in the North Georgia mountains.”
50. She-Wolf. And when they howl, do you howl with them?
51. The Story of the Ponca: Broken Promises in Treaties.
52. Water is called the universal solvent, because it will eventually dissolve anything given enough time.
53. “The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 established the boundaries of the Great Sioux Reservation which included the 96,000 acres of land that was the Ponca Reservation. The Ponca became trespassers in their own aboriginal homeland. On June 5, 1880 the Supreme Court of the United States dismissed the case, leaving Standing Bear and his followers free, but they had no home to return to.” Giant cicada husk.
54. This Land is Your Land.
55. Be on your way now, shoo.
56. National Geographic lists a Niobrara trip among its top 100 adventures.
57. Deer, bison, elk, beaver, mink, herons and kingfishers.
58. Say Hello To Hollywood.
59. “How could this happen? Most likely because the Fort Laramie Treaty commissioners (Generals Sherman, Harney, Terry, etc.) had forgotten about the provisions of the 1865 treaty with the Ponca. Thus, two different tribes were granted the same land.”
60. You can see how this happened.
61. They forgot!
62. But the Poncas got that DVD, so it evens out.
63. Remember that, because it’s important.
64. What’s random and what’s calculated?
65. Oh, say can you see? By the dawn’s early light?
66. “Congressman Henry Dawes of Massachusetts sponsored a landmark piece of legislation, the General Allotment Act (The Dawes Severalty Act) in 1887. It was designed to encourage the breakup of the tribes and promote the assimilation of Indians into American Society. It will be the major Indian policy until the 1930s. Dawes’ goal was to create independent farmers out of Indians—give them land and the tools for citizenship.” As long as you draw breath and gunpowder burns, Mister Man Dawes.
67. 2000 Census, Dawes County, Nebraska: Population 9,060, 93.34% White, 2.88% Native American. Dust devils.
68. To create independent farmers, encourage the breakup of the tribes, promote the assimilation.
69. No, don’t repeat it. Got it the first time. And the second (century), & the third, and the ( )…
70. “Civilization” has been thrust upon me since the days of the reservations, and it has not added one whit to my sense of justice, to my reverence for the rights of life, to my love for truth, honesty, and generosity, or to my faith in Wakan Tanka, God of the Lakotas. —Standing Bear
71. Three billion people—nearly one-half the world’s population—have no access to tap water in their home or village.
72. We have done so much better!
73. Shush, now. Don’t be a bad sport!
74. “U.S. attorney G.M. Lambertson argued that an Indian was neither a person nor a citizen and therefore, they could not bring a lawsuit against the government.”
75. The games of karma have begun.
76. In 2005 a new elementary school in the Omaha Public School System was named Standing Bear Elementary in honor of the Ponca Chief.
77. Crossbeams.
78. That snap together like legos. Tumbledown walls.
79. Paleontologists have found mammals such as camels, horses, mastodons and rhinos. Click “More” to visit the Niobrara National Scenic River “Fossils” page.
80. He’s here, and no one knows he’s here.
81. 15 sites in the area are of world class (international) significance, 46 are of national significance, and 106 of regional significance.
82. See all around a thing then down the center. At its center lay darkness.
83. Erosion, transport, deposition. Deposition. Deposed. De-Posed. De. Posed.
84. “Much of the history of the American West passed through Niobrara: the Ponca Indian village first marked on a map in 1739 by explorers Pierre & Paul Mallet.” Faded lettering on an abandoned building, and though you can’t make it out, this is what it says:
85. “They made us many promises, more than I can remember. But they kept but one—they promised to take our land—and they took it.” —Red Cloud.
86. Cut off from the river.
87. “March 28, 1881, an ice gorge broke, producing one of the largest Missouri River floods on record. After the danger of flooding Mother nature and the mighty Missouri again invaded Niobrara in April of 1952 and much of the town and the surrounding area was flooded.”
88. By 2025, 1.8 million people will be living in regions with absolute water scarcity, according to the U.N., and by 2030 2 out of 3 people in the world will be living in conditions of high water stress.
89. Get used to this.
90. “It's Your Misfortune and None of My Own”: A New History of the American West. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. White, Richard, ISBN 0806125675 (1991).
91. The origins of water on Earth are less certain, but most geologists agree that water on the planet is of cosmic origins from around the time when the planet itself was formed.
92. In April of 1988, Nebraska passed Legislative Resolution #128, giving state recognition to the Ponca Tribe and their members. Bodies slowly collapsing with the effort at imitating a past life.
93. Remember that DVD.
94. God Bless America.
95. One of the finest directors of farce around.
96. “In 1838 and 1839, as part of Andrew Jackson's Indian removal policy, the Cherokee nation was forced to give up its lands east of the Mississippi River and to migrate to an area in present day Oklahoma. The Cherokee people called this journey the “Trail of Tears,” because of its devastating effects. The migrants faced hunger, disease, and exhaustion on the forced march. Over 4,000 out of 15,000 of the Cherokees died.”
97. “Christianization” of the “Heathens.” ‘Shall we Gather by the River’ & ‘Wade in the Water.’ And take it right out from under them.
98. Baby get off the cross, we need the wood.
99. The Trial: Standing Bear, seated third from right. Watching the DVD.
100. But, because for the Lakota there was no wilderness, because nature was not dangerous but hospitable, not forbidding but friendly, Lakota philosophy was healthy—free from fear and dogmatism. And here I find the great distinction between the faith of the Indian and the white man. Indian faith sought the harmony of man with his surroundings; the other sought the dominance of surroundings. —Standing Bear
101. The Indian may now become a free man; free from the thralldom of the tribe; freed from the domination of the reservation system; free to enter into the body of our citizens. This bill may therefore be considered as the Magna Carta of the Indians of our country. —Alice Fletcher. Yes, thousands of years they were waiting on that Magna Carta!
102. Tour the Satan Embassy at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, D.C., 20500, Mon.-Sat., 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. Prohibited items include, but are not limited to, handbags, book bags, backpacks, purses, food & beverages of any kind, strollers, cameras, video recorders or any type of recording device, tobacco products, personal grooming items (make-up, hair brush or comb, lip or hand lotions, etc.), any pointed objects (pens, knitting needles, etc.), aerosol containers, guns, ammunition, fireworks, electric stun guns, mace, martial arts weapons/devices, or knives of any size. The U.S. Secret Service reserves the right to prohibit any other personal items. Umbrellas, wallets, cell phones and car keys are permitted.
103. “A Nez Perce Indian expressed a quite different reaction: ‘We do not want our land cut up in little pieces... A groan of assent ran along the dark line of Sphinxes.’”
104. Miscellaneous: * A new site to remember past American Indians, Remembering First People. * Educational Resources * Shopping Resources * First People Guestbook * Cedar Flutes and more.
105. Margin Notes:
* Silence is the mother of truth
* The Lakota—a true naturalist
* Actions speak louder than words
* Watching Nature
* Enriched Lakota existence
* The Great Mystery
* The animals had rights
* Indian faith
* Forever one man directed his Mystery to change the world
* Attempted transformation of the Indian by the white man
* The white man does not understand America
* The American Indian is of the soil
106. Still, while water itself is renewable, many uses of water will degrade its quality to such an extent that this theoretically “available” water is practically useless.
107. Like a resort recycling its ‘show’ water.
108. Flat-line.
109. “Webster describes a person as ‘a living soul; a self-conscious being: a moral agent; especially a living human being; a man, woman or child; an individual of the human race.’” This is comprehensive enough, it would seem, to include even an Indian. You knew this was truth, even from the beginning.
110. “In 1878 they moved 150 miles west to the Salt Fork of the Arkansas River, south of present-day Ponca City, Oklahoma, and by spring nearly a third of the tribe had perished to starvation, malaria and related causes.”
111. The Star Spangled Banner.
112. Some say Earth had a proto-atmosphere and large bodies of water as far back as 4.45 billion years ago and later, comets, meteors, and asteroids brought water. Water.
113. In sharing, in loving all and everything, one people naturally found a due portion of the thing they sought, while, in fearing, the other found the need of conquest. —Standing Bear
114. “It was important to the Nebraska Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commission, as part of the Nebraska Lewis and Clark Bicentennial, to facilitate a pilgrimage by representatives from the Otoe-Missouria Tribe back to their former homeland in Nebraska. The Commission presented the tribe with a DVD of the ‘Ink and Elkskin’ dramatization and complete video recordings of the entire Signature Event. In a reciprocal gesture, the Otoe-Missouria presented an impressive gift to the Commission—a maquette bust of Chief Standing Bear. This sculpture of the famous Nebraska figure and Ponca chief currently resides at the Fort Atkinson State Historical Park Visitor Center.” And they’re going around in the same direction.
115. It was important to the Lewis and Clark Commission.
116. It was important.
117. Back to their former “homeland.”
118. A DVD.
119. When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again.
120. As if you can wind back the river, coil it to its beginning.
121. Something like this should never happen to someone like that.
122. Antoine Lavoisier, who named the constituents of water—hydrogen and oxygen—was guillotined during the Revolution. His tombstone says two H’s and one O. Like a sign saying This Area Of The Mall Closed.
124. Head the Hell Out.
125. “In 1830, Congress passed the ‘Indian Removal Act.’ Although many Americans were against the act, most notably Tennessee Congressman Davy Crockett, it passed anyway. President Jackson quickly signed the bill into law.” The extreme point at which a thing turns into its opposite.
126. Trail of Tears
Painting by Robert Lindneux
Woolaroc Museum
127. Perma-shit-grin. On a clown. The graves were shallow, just a few inches deep.
128. The attempted transformation of the Indian by the white man and the chaos that has resulted are but the fruits of the white man's disobedience of a fundamental and spiritual law. —Standing Bear
129. “U.S. Senate 1869 Summary of Information Regarding Hostile Indians, Semi-Weekly Report.”
130. A muddle of glowering looks and shadows.
131. Now hear this!
132. There's not enough words in the English language to describe the way you are… But there’s one in Siouan. There has to be.
133. Water is the only substance necessary to all life; many organisms can live without oxygen, but none can live without water.
134. Why can't you understand?
135. I would sooner be honestly damned than hypocritically immortalized. —Davy Crockett.
136. In the summer of 1843, the Niobrara’s upper reaches simply vanished, causing the historian Benjamin Foster to go mad. “In late June 1844, after Foster had begun to despair of ever understanding either the fact or the meaning of the disappearance of the river…began throwing his manuscripts into the river. According to a Pawnee called Wolf Finger…Foster would go down naked in the afternoon, wade out into the Niobrara and hurl a fistful of pages into the water, or from the shore he would skip a journal across the surface like a stone. Eventually he threw everything he’d ever written down into the Niobrara River. I imagine Foster, a brilliant man much troubled by the destruction of native cultures, simply fell prey to a final madness. —Barry Lopez
137. “The Ponca planned to give up hunting for an agricultural economy. However, they faced a variety of problems that included: failure of the government to live up to its promises, droughts, locusts, and conflicts with the Sioux. Yet, the Ponca kept their promises and never stole from nor attacked the white man.”
138. Amazing Grace.
139. “January of 1863 Conner and his California Volunteers marched north to the Bear River. There, Conner’s men brutally killed 400 Shoshoni men, women and children. More Native Americans died at Bear River than any other battle in western history.” As opposed to not brutally killed.
140. “By 1835 the Cherokee were divided and despondent.” Vanished council fires.
141. We have about 10 gallons of water in us held in by trillions of cells.
142. 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated.
143. “Before the Dawes Act, some 150 million acres remained in Indian hands. Within twenty years, two-thirds of their land was gone. The reservation system was nearly destroyed.” The Earth still smoking.
144. Geologists have documented over 230 waterfalls within the Niobrara River Valley.
145. Just a 2% drop of water can affect short-term memory, trouble with basic math, difficulty focusing.
146. “It would not be until 1924 that Congress adopts the Citizenship Act, which confers citizenship on all Indians.”
147. The tallest known falls is Smith Falls, which cascades 63 feet over a sandstone cliff.
148. Standing Bear rose, extending his hand toward the judge's bench: “That hand is not the color of yours, but if I pierce it, I shall feel pain. If you pierce your hand, you also feel pain. The blood that will flow from mine will be the same color as yours. I am a man. God made us both.” Guess which man ventured forth at night at his own risk in the ruined ground.
149. General Crook asked Standing Bear why he had left the Indian Territory, and Standing Bear replied, “At last I had only one son left; then he sickened. When he was dying he asked me to promise him one thing. He begged me to take him, when he was dead, back to our old burying ground by the Swift running Waters, the Niobrara. I promised. When he died, I and those with me put his body into a box and then in a wagon, and we started North.” After Standing Bear had spoken, Crook expressed his sympathy with the Ponca, but stated that he had a direct order and would have to obey it. “It is…a very disagreeable duty.” To fall inward toward your reflection.
150. “Standing Bear, however, later claimed that there was a misunderstanding, as the Ponca language had no separate word for land in the Indian Territory. He further stated he reasonably thought he was agreeing to move to the Omaha Reservation.”
151. My Country ‘tis of Thee.
152. Boat Launch Fee (per person): $1.00/day for wrist band. Camping: $4/person/night (11 years old and under are free). Entrance Fee: $4/day/car; annual $20.
153. We can’t help being thirsty, moving toward the voice of water. —Rumi
154. “As the Commissioner for Indian Affairs explained in his 1858 Report, the objective was to ‘colonize and domesticate’ the Poncas.”
155. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.
156. Give it a Rest Ye Genocidal Gentlemen.
157. “The government failed to provide the mills, personnel, schools and protection promised by the 1858 treaty, and although Ponca enrollment increased as relatives sought annuity payments, loss of life and resources to sickness, starvation and raids was frequent.” The dead animal’s hand was held to the flame.
158. In 1978 Standing Bear was inducted into the Nebraska Hall of Fame.
159. Put pressure on the wound.
160. “Much of the water provided by dams is lost, mainly due to inefficient agriculture irrigation—which globally wastes up to 1,500 trillion litres of water annually. This is equivalent to 10 times the annual water consumption of the entire African continent.”
161. “Composer Larry McTaggert wrote Niobrara River Sketches, which captures the beauty of the Niobrara River flowing through Nebraska; split into three movements: Tubing on the River, Sunset in Cherry County, and Hoedown in Niobrara.”
162. Hoedown in Niobrara. You smell like the evidence.
163. Whether or not the US or any other country ‘agrees’ doesn’t mean such a right doesn’t exist. It only means no efforts are going to be taken to protect and ensure such rights, which is a global travesty. —Peter Gleik
164. “The Trail of Tears” is a direct translation from Cherokee, “The Trail Where They Cried” (“Nunna daul Tsuny”). “The mothers of the Cherokee grieved so much that the chiefs prayed for a sign to lift the mother's spirits and give them strength to care for their children. From that day forward, a beautiful new flower, a rose, grew wherever a mother's tear fell to the ground. The rose is white, for the mother's tears. It has a gold center, for the gold taken from the Cherokee lands, and seven leaves on each stem that represent the seven Cherokee clans that made the journey. To this day, the Cherokee Rose prospers along the route of the Trail of Tears.” Official flower of Georgia is now the Cherokee Rose. That makes up for all that walking… and walking… and… Land?
165. “On their journey westward in 1804, Lewis and Clark learned about the Ponca, a small tribe living on the west bank of the Missouri River and along what are now the lower Niobrara River and Ponca Creek in northeast Nebraska. The two did not meet as the tribe was on a hunting trip to the west.” Phew. Thank Christ they weren’t headed back East, as “restrooms and public telephones are not available” at the White House.
166. In 2030, more than 5 billion people—67% of the world’s population—may still not be connected to a public sewerage system. Because it’s just not that important when you can get a DVD, instead.
167. Ponca Reduction. Smallpox whittled 800 down to 200. At the time of Lewis and Clark’s expedition. Reduction Ponca.
168. One way or another.
169. Battle Hymn of the Republic.
170. “Did You Know? Blacknose shiners are extremely rare in Nebraska, and the last known sighting of this species occurred in the Niobrara drainage. East of Valentine, the Niobrara has cut a valley 200 to 300 feet deep and between one-half to two miles wide.”
171. Yankee Doodle.
172. More than 80% of sewage in developing countries is discharged untreated, polluting rivers, lakes and coastal areas.
173. Human settlement lights. Light-tricked.
174. Souped-up strips. Asphalt ridges leading nowhere. Many modern thoroughfares started as narrow Indian trails about a foot wide.
175. You’re a Grand Old Flag.
176. “Unfortunately for Standing Bear and the Ponca, Kemble was already back, and he had new orders from Washington—the Ponca were to be moved, using force if necessary, to Indian Territory. An agent for the Otoe Reservation in Gage County remarked that the Ponca leaders left bloody footprints in the snow. After a strenuous journey, the Ponca leaders arrived at the Ponca Reservation on April 2, 1877.” 177. The Stars and Stripes Forever.
178. Red, white, and blue. They got the “red” part. Its remnants still visible to people who know what to look for. That blood still in the ground.
179. The Niobrara River drains over 12,000 square miles of the Sandhills, one of the largest stabilized dune fields in the world.
180. Ponca Chief Standing Bear, after whom the Missouri River Bridge was named, is now called Chief Standing Bear Memorial Bridge, and was dedicated in 1998.
181. A dust devil forms when a column of air begins spinning above sun-heated ground. The mini-tornado picks up dust as it moves, exposing the darker surface underneath.
182. “My people took scalps only to prove their stories that they had met the enemy and overpowered him," he said. "It is no different than the doughboys in the World war bringing back German helmets and other souvenirs.” In such cases, separate the figure into shapes you know.
183. “Custer’s last stand was not the inhuman massacre of a band of whites by savage Indians as it has been pictured, but was an act of self-defense by the Sioux Indians following invasions of their lands and attacks on their people by the United States Army.” Blue notches radiating out from each eye.
184. “David Zhang, a geographer at the University of Hong Kong, produced a study published in the US National Academy of Sciences journal that analyzed 8,000 wars over 500 years and concluded that water shortage had played a far greater role as a catalyst than previously supposed.”
185. National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution: Standing Bear in his formal attire.
186. “My ancestors occupied these lands for thousands of years before they became known as the United States & Canada.”
187. “In 1858, the Ponca ceded a large section of land to the U.S. Government, but they did reserve a much smaller area for the tribe to occupy. They agreed to move to the reserved area within one year after ratification of the treaty. The new area would become their permanent home. In return for making the land cession, they were to receive the following from the U.S. Government: 1) Annuities—that is, cash payments—for 30 years, 2) Educational institutions for ten years, 3) A mill to grind grain and one to saw timber, 4) An interpreter, a miller, a mill engineer, and a farmer.” They ‘forgot’ these, too. But hey, there was that DVD.
188. 85% of the world’s population resides in the drier half of the Earth. More than 1 billion people living in arid or semi-arid parts of the world have access to little or no renewable water resources.
189. Ballad of the Green Beret.
190. “That piece of red, white and blue cloth stands for a system and a country that does not honor its own word... If it stood for honor and truth, it would remember our treaties and give them the appropriate place under international law. But it doesn't. It dishonors its own word and violates its treaties...” Because this wasn’t how it was supposed to end.
191. Standing Bear Returns and is Arrested.
192. 99¢ Mondays at Mister Movie, Your Choice: Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee or Flow: The World Water Crisis.
193. The white man does not understand America. He is far removed from its formative processes. The roots of the tree of his life have not yet grasped the rock and the soil. —Standing Bear
194. “The Niobrara National Scenic River is not only Nebraska’s most popular canoeing river, but is also among the top 10 canoeing rivers in the U.S., according to Backpacker magazine. Depending on your ambitions, trips can last from an hour to several days.”
195. Or centuries, if your ambition is to take over “water spread-out horizontal-the.”
196. No, it’s not on the tour.
197. Take Us To Your Water Because You Don’t Count, Only Us. That’s the tour.
198. A twenty-two foot statue of Standing Bear stands just south of Ponca City in Northern Oklahoma. Stuck. Like turning a figure around a fixed point.
199. In the morning I became confused on farm roads and was unable to find my way back to the river. In desperation I stopped at a place I recognized having been at the day before and proceeded from there on foot toward the river, until I became lost in the fields themselves. I met a man on a tractor who told me the river had never come over in that direction. Ever. And to get away. I have not been back in that country since. —Barry Lopez
200. The Niobrara River Valley straddles the 100th Meridian, the boundary between wet and dry America.
Cheyenne Nimes lives near the Great Salt Lake. Her manuscript on Jackson's Valley Campaign is searching for a home.
