Watching the timber
recover from logging, farming, grazing, drought, storms and time, I’ve come to
trust the resilience of the land. With humans or without us, the earth will
survive. Gaia takes care of her own.
Reading Ronald D.
Parks’ meticulous and compassionate book, The Darkest Period: The Kanza Indians and Their Last Homeland, 1846-1873, I’ve
begun to see some hope for humans. Like other indigenous peoples, the Kaw were
driven to the brink of annihilation. European settlers attempted to destroy their
culture, their livelihood, their history, their spirituality and even their
language. They were driven from their lands, reduced to poverty, reviled for
following their traditions, forced to attend punitive schools and regarded as
less than human. In the words of Chief Allegawaho, they were driven from place to place
Yet they survive. In Oklahoma, Kaw City flourishes. The Kanza tribe sponsors events, maintains a museum, provides health care and offers language instruction. The last full-blood Kaw tribe member died in 2000, but mixed-blood Kanzas continue the dances and celebrate the old ways. The last speaker of the Kaw language was Robert Rankin, a linguistics professor who grew up in Georgia. His Kanza dictionary and tribal teaching materials are helping to revitalize the ancient tongue. Former enemies of the Kaw have allied with them to preserve and revive indigenous cultures. A recent land purchase near Council Grove brings the Kaw back to Kansas at last.
Yet they survive. In Oklahoma, Kaw City flourishes. The Kanza tribe sponsors events, maintains a museum, provides health care and offers language instruction. The last full-blood Kaw tribe member died in 2000, but mixed-blood Kanzas continue the dances and celebrate the old ways. The last speaker of the Kaw language was Robert Rankin, a linguistics professor who grew up in Georgia. His Kanza dictionary and tribal teaching materials are helping to revitalize the ancient tongue. Former enemies of the Kaw have allied with them to preserve and revive indigenous cultures. A recent land purchase near Council Grove brings the Kaw back to Kansas at last.
The Kanza farmed
the Kaw Valley for eight generations. In the winter they hunted deer and
raccoons in the woods to the northeast. In the summer they went west to hunt bison.
The women farmed; the men hunted. They planted sunflowers to mark the graves of
their loved ones. After they were removed to progressively smaller
reservations, and eventually from the state, they still returned to visit their old lands. Even after death, their spirits returned to their Kaw Valley homes.
The timber does not
look the same as it did before the railroad loggers came through, cutting oak,
hickory and walnut. Each time a storm takes down an old tree, the forest
changes. New clearings open. Young saplings fill in the gaps. Trails detour
around fallen logs. The deer had almost vanished when I first came here; now
they pose a hazard on the roads every autumn. Foxes have moved into town,
hunting rodents at dawn and dusk, singing under suburban windows.
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| The stolen Shunganunga Boulder |
Spirit villages ensoul
the Kaw Valley. Sunflowers bloom along the roads every summer. River trails
lead hikers through unnamed half-blood lands. Farm tours showcase growers of healthy
produce. The huge quartzite stone where the Kanza offered prayers, ripped from
its original resting place, stands at a city intersection, marked with the names
of European settlers. The glacier that brought it south resculpted the land
long before living memory. The land always meets change with adaptation. We can
survive if we remain resilient. We can survive if we offer reverence to life. Spirit
villages nourish us, teaching us to eat well, to care for the land, to remember
those who loved the earth before we were born to walk it. The Kaw still dwell
here. Gaia takes care of her own.
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| The Kaw Valley |
