Spaylaywitheepi -- A Fierce and Final Act of Forgiveness

I've been reading Alan Eckhart's "A Sorrow in Our Heart: The Life of Tecumseh". It's a historical narrative that reads like a novel but is based entirely on well-researched documentation of conversations, newspapers articles, oral history and many other sources.

The thing I love about this story is learning what a key role the Ohio Territory (as defined by the great big Ohio River in the east and south) played in the history for the battle to control this country, this land currently known as the United States. Even as white colonizers pushed hard to the west on all fronts, they were stopped again and again by the native people in Ohio -- primarily the Shawnee tribe of which Tecumseh was a member -- but also the Delaware, Potowatamies, and many others. Kentucky and Pennsylvania were well settled before whites were able to get a foothold in Ohio. The River, as a natural barrier, of course was a huge part of that. But also the Shawnee were fierce warriors who first fought for their land, then negotiated a treaty with the whites to keep their land and then fought hard for their land again when that treaty was broken again and again by white settlers.

Being an archaeologist by training (though not really in my heart) this is especially interesting to me since I had heard somewhere during the time I was working on my thesis that the Ohio territory was largely abandoned by the time white settlers began to move in. This seems to be categorically false. Not only was it not abandoned, it was highly settled and heavily defended long after many other lands around it were stolen, native populations terrorized, cheated and beaten out of their ancestral homes.

This is also interesting because I recently worked at a place -- a beautiful place in southeast Ohio full of forests, rolling hills, much plant medicine and a generally sacred feeling -- that had been named by some unknown psychic as the burial place of Tecumseh. This is a dirty rumor of course, as Tecumseh's burial place is to this day unknown, but an interesting connection nonetheless.

I'd like to think that this spirit of rebellion and fierce attachment is still part of this land. That the blood of the people who were destroyed on this very ground seeped in and somehow, in some fierce and final act of forgiveness will seep back out through soil, streams, roots, leaves and infuse us, its current inhabitants with the ability to withstand the coming invasions that hope to (again) strip the land of its resources, destroy its people and count the profits in some far off city.

I got a phone call last night at about 12;30 from Elisa Young who is a 9th generation Meigs County resident fighting the proposed resumption of coal mining in southeast Ohio and the 5 new coal fired power plants currently being proposed in her town -- which sits on the banks of the same Ohio River or Spaylaywitheepi as it was known to the Shawnee. Elisa works with Meigs-CAN (Community Action Network is what it stands for I believe).

Elisa told me last night that the coal company has a 90 acre surface mine with 2000 acres of initial underground mines slated for immediate development beginning on April 1st (2008). The coal company, once all permits are completed in the next couple weeks will begin blasting the 90 acre site, removing its "overburden" (otherwise known as a perfectly harmless and intact mountaintop) to create sludge impoundment ponds that will be located above and upstream from many local homeowners. This surface mine will be used for processing the coal that will come out of the 2000+ acre mines they will be developing underground.

The coal company has been busy buying out homes and properties from people with little bargaining power, forcing them to move to other areas which have a high potential for coal mine development in the near future.

I had been loosely following the developments in the neighboring county, but it was a surprise to hear that the blasting could start as early as the next 3 weeks. The company has refused to release relevant information to local landowners, like how much money they will carry in a bond to pay for any damages inflicted to private property by the coming blasts and coal mine development.

There is no doubt that the Ohio Territory is once again under attack. It is land coveted by coal companies seeking to make a profit on the low-quality coal they left behind when they abandoned these mines after past intrusions (in the late 1800's and again in the early 90's when higher quality and more easily accessible -- read more profitable -- coal was available elsewhere). Now, with exponentially increasing demand for cheap electricity to run our 4 televisions per household, to dry our clothes, to plug in our fuel efficient feel good electric cars, the Ohio River and surrounding rolling hills are once again hot property. Not only because there is still coal under the ground here, but because coal can be easily and relatively cheaply moved up and down the Ohio River and water from the Ohio River can be used to cool the operations of these power-generating facilities.

I am hoping I can find some of the strength of this land, of its people and its history in myself in order to defend it properly. It is after all the place I know as home. It is a place I feel in my bones.

The idea that we can somehow save ourselves from the effects of this ravenous beast of capitalism, which demands constant and exponential growth, by switching our light bulb choices, buying a more fuel efficient car or eating local food alone is an illusion and a distraction from the realities facing us. It doesn't mean we shouldn't do these things but there must be more.

And yet, I feel confused, powerless and afraid. I don't know what to do. I don't know if I should or can do anything more or different than what I'm doing right now. My computer is sucking up that coal powered energy as sure as anything else. Maybe we all have to just watch in horror as this beast crashes in on itself. Maybe we will all be saved by the return of some messiah. Maybe nothing will happen and this agony of empty words and inaction will haunt us to the death. Maybe Ohio will turn into a desert and the bones of Tecumseh will finally emerge and "he will be angry" as Mary Oliver says. I just don't know.