2006
When I awoke, the dawn of the day and the crisp morning air were very invigorating. The thought came to my mind that it would be wonderful to take a long hike or bicycle ride over this beautiful countryside. Sensible reasoning drove that thought from my mind, as I realized, of course, that my thoughts. were selfish, in not considering the pleasure of the Delegates. I was most certain that they were far too excited about traveling west to see new sights and meet new people, to lose a day just dallying around.
During breakfast I started, as tactfully as possible, to learn their choice of activity for the day. Observing their facial expressions in order to sense a reaction, I embarked on a rhetorical safari. I recall that I was saying, "Well, we have seen many things up to now." After naming a number of things, I said, "To the west lies beautiful country, with vast fields of Indian corn, and mile after mile of various grain fields, some of which the Agricultural Sequence will be harvesting about this time of the year."
Not until I said, "To the west and south there are vast areas of prairie stocked with cattle and horses," did I get a reaction from the group. I realized immediately that their reaction was the result of their having seen Hollywood horse operas. Miss Vollnogle said, "The beautiful fields of grain will be very interesting to see. Most of all, we would like to see your Wild West." I informed them that the west was no longer wild as Hollywood had depicted it, but was still just as beautiful. I said, "Okay, let's get a move on, because the bus train is waiting for us out front."
I told the driver to take us through the Corn Belt and then to the west, through wheat fields, in hope that the threshing had begun in that area. As usual I took a position at the microphone to give a running commentary on the country we were traveling through. After we left Indianapolis I told the driver to drive through some of the old strip-mining area. As we approached the area the Delegates said, "What is going on here? Why have you made such chasms and then filled them in?" Because of the magnitude of an area that was being filled by such vast earth-moving equipment, it was difficult for them to comprehend that mere human beings could, or would, be capable of such debasement.
I attempted, but with little success, to explain to them that strip mining for minerals or metals or coal leaves an unsightly terrain, which is vulnerable to erosion. I explained that, when the land was filled and leveled, then planted to various vegetation, such as grass or trees, there would, after a few years, develop a new ecology that would give the terrain a more pleasing appearance.
I informed them that the mining in that area was done during the price system era, and to have refilled and reforested the area would have resulted in less profit to those conducting the activity, and, belatedly, after so much damage had been done by erosion, we were attempting to rectify the sins committed during the price system era, and that eventually we hoped at least partially to restore some of its original beauty.
Leaving the unsightly mess, we drove through mile after mile of corn, of which some had tasseled, silked, and was in the dough stage, or what is known in the Corn Belt as green corn, and is very pleasing to the palate.
When we were nearing Des Moines, the driver was in contact by shortwave radio with an agricultural unit. When he switched the conversation to intercom, I heard some very excited voices. Someone said, "Can you dig me, man? The time is gettin' rat around twelve hundred hours, and I bet them there folks you got with you are gettin' as gaunt as Davy Crockett's hound dog. Here, let me connect you with the cat who is in charge here." A voice said, "Yes, this is Howard Gross, of the Agricultural Sequence of Regional Division 9341."
When I gave him my name and told him that I was conducting foreign visitors on a tour, he said, "Yes, I know about that, but I didn't know you were in this area." He said, "Now that you are that close, and it is nearing lunch time, why don't you stop here? Tell you what I am going to do. If you stop here, we will put on a feed for you and your Delegates that you will never forget." When he inquired as to our location, I told him that we were approximately twenty miles out of Iowa City. He said, "Then you will be here in less than an hour." The conversation having been on intercom, many of the Delegates were standing and clapping their hands in anticipation. As we approached the lovely living unit, surrounded by trees and lawn, a voice came over the intercom, saying, "Drive down the wooded lane and around back to the park area." When the bus stopped beside a beautiful park, an all-black band began playing jazz music, while a mixed group of black and white girls went through a dance routine.
As we departed from the bus, Howard Gross said, "Folks, step in here and make your little selves at home, and just be my children for a spell." When we walked under the shade trees, the music and dancing stopped, and introductions were made. When all were introduced, and we had been seated at a table laden with food, much of which had been grown by personnel of the compound (including green corn), the music started. Howard Gross yelled, "Cut it, boys, we can have music any time. Right now we want to rap with these folks." The diversion was so extreme, and things were happening in such rapid succession, that the Delegates were speechless and bugeyed. Well, they wanted diversion, but this scene was almost too much for them.
When Howard Gross said, "Dig in, folks, before I eat it all The conversation reached such a crescendo that it was difficult to distinguish once voice from the other. Eventually, I heard Howard Gross attempting to answer a question, but he was having a little "Can it,“ difficulty competing with the hubbub. When he ye folks, I am trying to answer a question, but can’t hear myself think with all that racket," everything quieted down. When quiet prevailed, he said, "Well, yes, we use very large equipment. When we plow or plant or cultivate or harvest, we make wide swaths with each pass of the equipment. Small equipment would be too time-consuming. Yes, the length of the rows is no longer than it takes the equipment to make one round in a four-hour period. No, we don't have vast areas of just one crop. We diversify in this area, which is basically a corn area, by having a strip of corn one kilometer wide, then a narrow strip of, say, beans or anything to break the continuity of plant growth, including fruit trees occasionally. "Years ago we had some sad experiences with bugs, cut worms, and blight," he said. "We learned later from Rachel Carson that that condition was caused, to a great extent, to large areas of just one crop, which by the order of magnitude became vulnerable to various pests. We no longer use chemical fertilizer, because we have found that soil needs humus to retain moisture. Instead, we use animal residue. Also, we plant and plow under legume plants." While we were enjoying a delicious dessert, singing began. People of all nations were asked to sing songs of their native land. The Delegates were amazed at, and later commented about, the ability of black people to compose music to fit any occasion. While we were sitting at the table, a black girl sang a song about our trip across North America, composing both the music and lyrics, that was very beautiful and touching. Later, as we drove through fields of corn interspersed with r other grain crops, and occasionally fruit trees, and were nearing
Council Bluffs, the Delegates began bugging me about seeing some of what they termed the "shoot 'me. up West. "After some thought, I said, "Well, folks, there are vast areas of prairie stocked with cattle and horses that are several days' drive distance. However, an area not far to the south will afford the same thing, plus one area I know of that will cause you to think that you have retrogressed to a period of the western pioneer, where long-horned cattle and bison roam over and feed on lush prairie grass, just as they did before the white man arrived."
Their choice was to turn south and join the American pioneer. After turning south the scenery changed from corn to fields of wheat, interspersed with corn, alfalfa, and milo maize. The country was slightly rolling, with beautiful little streams meandering across the land, lined on both banks with lovely trees: Occasionally, there would appear pasture land stocked with fat cattle.
Inasmuch as there had been very little subdivision building in that part of the country during the price system era, the streets and buildings of the towns we were seeing were made of red brick (during and before the Civil War). Many towns were left intact for the pleasure of tourists, and for posterity. Seeing the towns, as we drove across country, gave one the feeling that one was living in the time period in which they were built. The Delegates could hardly believe the quaintness and antiquity they were experiencing in such a beautiful landscape. Mr. Hoyt said, "This whole landscape, and small towns without suburban districts, brings to mind visions I used to have as a small boy, when reading about Camelot, and seeing artists' versions of it. I mean, it doesn't resemble Camelot ' but the atmosphere and the feeling one gets are very similar." Some of the Delegates recommended we stay the night in one of those towns, but I reasoned there wouldn't be accommodations sufficient for a group that large. I told the driver to put in at Junction City for the night. Realizing that our itinerary would be time-consuming, I pressured the Delegates to rush through breakfast and board the bus.
As we traveled, I was pointing out various places of interest. I informed them that that part of North America was quite historical, insofar as the Civil War was concerned. That that After some thought, I said, "Well, folks, there are vast areas of prairie stocked with cattle and horses that are several days' drive distance. However, an area not far to the south will afford the same thing, plus one area I know of that will cause you to think that you have retrogressed to a period of the western pioneer, where long-homed cattle and bison roam over and feed on lush prairie grass, just as they did before the white man arrived."
Their choice was to turn south and join the American pioneer. After turning south the scenery changed from corn to fields of wheat, interspersed with corn, alfalfa, and milo maize. The country was slightly rolling, with beautiful little streams meandering across the land, lined on both banks with lovely trees: Occasionally, there would appear pasture land stocked with fat cattle.
Inasmuch as there had been very little subdivision building in that part of the country during the price system era, the streets and buildings of the towns we were seeing were made of red brick (during and before the Civil War). Many towns were left intact for the pleasure of tourists, and for posterity.
Seeing the towns, as we drove across country, gave one the feeling that one was living in the time period in which they were built.
The Delegates could hardly believe the quaintness and antiquity they were experiencing in such a beautiful landscape.
Mr. Hoyt said, "This whole landscape, and small towns without suburban districts, brings to mind visions I used to have as a small boy, when reading about Camelot, and seeing artists' versions of it. I mean, it doesn't resemble Camelot, but the atmosphere and the feeling one gets are very similar." Some of the Delegates recommended we stay the night in one of those towns, but I reasoned there wouldn't be accommodations sufficient for a group that large. I told the driver to put in at Junction City for the night. Realizing that our itinerary would be time-consuming, I pressured the Delegates to rush through breakfast and board the bus.
As we traveled, I was pointing out various places of interest. I informed them that that part of North America was quite historical, insofar as the Civil War was concerned. That that place was the general area where the "infamous John Brown" caused so much bloodshed. I recalled to them what an elderly woman had related to me when I was a boy and studying American history. She said, "When I was a young woman and living in the town of Lecompton, it was burned twice, and no one would stand in an open door at night time." The town she told me of lies just a short distance to the east.
The Delegates were amazed that anything but tranquility could prevail in such a pastoral landscape. After they had mused for a spell, I told them there was an area nearby where flint stones were so flat and numerous as to cause walking to be difficult. When they asked me how I knew this to be true, I told them I had visited the place a number of times when I was a youngster. I told them that I had been informed by some of the older people who resided in that area that the various Indian tribes came from long distances to collect the stones, because of their hardness, which caused them to be desirable to shape into arrowheads, tomahawks, and skinning tools.
I had scarcely finished telling them of the unusual stones when they began discussing the most probable method of shaping them into useful tools. I was amused at listening to their conversation, because everyone had a theory of the shaping process used by the Indians. Suddenly they got the idea that I was withholding information, and they insisted I explain the art of shaping stones. "I am not really certain," I said, "but there are two accepted theories. One being that it was accomplished by heating the stones and applying drops of water to cause chippage in the desired area. The other being that of striking one stone against the other, causing chippage."
As we were nearing the area of Cedar Vale, I told the driver to turn off the road and stop for the purpose of making inquiry of a young man who was operating a cultivator. When I gave him my name and asked about the stones, he told me to turn back a short distance and turn south on the dirt road to the top of the first hill.
I heard someone say, "So, this is where the Indians came to gather stones." Each of them collected stones as souvenirs.
Mr. Proulx put on an act of placing his hand over his eyes and looking toward the horizon, then he said, "Take cover, Sitting Bull, because the paleface are coming."
After leaving the flint area, we turned south at Sedan. When we had driven a short distance, I informed them that we were entering the Osage Nation. To be in keeping with the humor extant, I said, "Keep a lookout for Indians, and hold tightly to your scalps, because we are a long way from the safety of Fort Smith." I told them that had they been traveling through that country in the nineteenth century they would have seen bison and antelope in profusion, and that the Osage Indians would have been pleased to meet them. When we arrived at Pawhuska, I informed them that that area had been the camping ground of the oil-rich Osage, who lived in plush tepees. We had lunch in Tulsa, then drove to Claremore to visit Will Rogers's home town and see his statue. After I told the driver to go to Oklahoma City, the group began remembering and quoting some of Will Rogers's puns. Miss Vollnogle said in a slurred voice, "Wall, I don't belong to no political party, I am jest a Democrat." Mr. Proulx said, "Wall, I ain't never met a feller I didn't like." When we were eating dinner in Oklahoma City, the Delegates were asking questions of me concerning historical events in the area.
I said, "My God, folks, if you get me started on that subject you will get no sleep tonight. However, I will attempt to give you a synopsis on the subject. To do this justice I will have to think in retrospect, to a period when Europeans first began settling North America. "For the most part, people migrated from Europe to North America to escape oppression," I said. "Having had an unfavorable conditioning, their treatment of the American Indian was similar to the way they had been treated while living in Europe. Most everyone who headed a colonizing group, with the exception of Mr. Oglethorpe and Mr. Penn, looked upon the Indian with disdain, and treated them as though they were just other animals of the wilderness-the true American, who could have been so valuable in conditioning the white man to have respect for the ecology of this great land. "The white man not only slashed the timber promiscuously, but belligerently crowded the Indians back into the wilderness and plowed the ground, only to let erosion carry away the topsoil. I want to stress again, it was motivated by monetary consideration. "Now, that is just one phase of the white man's maltreatment of the Indian. After the Civil War, the Five Tribes, who were referred to as the civilized tribes, who possessed valuable land in the southern states and were engaged in agricultural activity, were forcibly driven from their land by the United States Army. It has been said by many that the elected political government officials, in that period of our history, gave the lame excuse for their infamous deed that the Indians were practicing tribal law within a state of the United States. "The shame, the tears, the heartbreak of the Indians who were driven from their homes, to be resettled in a strange landa prairie land, which was such a contrast to what they had been accustomed to-are enough to bring tears to the eyes of anyone possessing humaneness. It was a trail of tears. "Folks, I want to interject something here," I said, "concerning stories you have heard about the horrendous deed of the Indians scalping their captives. The Indians were taught the act of scalping by the white man. In the early days of white settlement, white men were paid a bounty for Indian scalps. "All of the harsh and inhumane treatment meted out to him notwithstanding, the Indian, being versatile and ingenious, adapted to his new home. "Another horrendous deed perpetrated on the Indian by the white entrepreneur was the killing of the Indian's food source, the bison, for its skin, only to leave the carcass lying on the prairie to be devoured by predators.
"The white man's insatiable desire for yet more land was witnessed when he granted the Indians small allotments of land and opened the Indian territory for white settlement. This part you are familiar with from viewing Hollywood horse operas of the Oklahoma land openings, or runs, as they were termed. Portions of land, at various times, were opened for settlement, or grabs, if you will. It was so arranged that, at a given hour, on a given date, people would station themselves at a given location and, at the firing of a gun, would attempt to arrive at a given portion of land and drive a stake on it as a token of claim, and would attempt, by any means or weapon, to drive away anyone who attempted to intrude on said portion of land. There were many beatings and killings among those who had driven stakes on the same portion of land. If more than one person drove a stake on a portion of land and lived through the melee, he had to endure a long period of litigation to attempt, in many instances by devious means, to prove that he was first to arrive at said portion of land in question. "Oklahoma City is a classic example of that method of opening a land area for settlement, which is a sad commentary on the intellect and behavior of man. "Many things that happened here in Oklahoma City you will not read in history books. I know of many instances of people being paid as witnesses to tell lies in court, concerning land disputes. "Well, folks, I could sit here all night and tell you about the maltreatment of the Indians, because I know of many. As we travel through the country I will tell you of many things that happened at various locations. "The hour is late," I said, "and we must get some sleep, because tomorrow we will visit the Wichita Mountains Wild Life Refuge, and you will get a view of what this whole country looked like before it was settled by the white man." The Delegates were sitting with sad expressions on their faces, and I saw a few tears as I looked over the group. As I arose from the table Miss Jensen said, "How can man be so inhumane to man?"
This was chapter 8 On to chapter 9