Page 30 RAIN March/April 1984 Prairie Perspective The original inhabitants of these prairie lands were pushed onto small Indian reservations as Manifest Destiny brought white settlers, many of them recent European immigrants with the desire to farm, to inhabit the prairie bioregion. The pioneers who came to this region had great difficulties relating to a land with few trees, with droughts, thunderstorms, prairie fires, and grasshopper swarms. They even had difficulty relating to the success of those few who made this land an agricultural region. These stories have been told by prairie writers such as Mari Sandoz, Willa Gather, and others. (See CoEvoluHon Quarterly, Winter 1981, for a bibliography). There has always been a flux of people moving into and out of the region. However, since the Dust Bowl and World War II, the countryside has been greatly depopulated. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, there was not a strong back-to-the-land movement in the prairie bioregion. How many communes or collective farms do you know of that got started at that time in Kansas or North Dakota? I believe that there was not a large back-to-the-land movement in the prairie bioregion because; (1) it's open country and not conducive to building a homestead way back in the woods; (2) the land is primarily valuable for its agricultural production and is not cheap (it is somewhat ironic that bioregions that did experience a strong back-to-the-land movement, such as the Ozarks, have thin soil and mineral-poor rocks, which are not conducive to food self-sufficiency); and (3) a majority of people in the prairie bioregion still have farm ties through relatives (even in our small cities), and because of this access there was less desire to return back to the land. It is significant to note that our prairie bioregional organization—KAW Council—has its origins not only in the back-to-the-land movement, but also in having maintained personal long-term connections with these prairie lands. As a result, a significant portion of the core members of KAW Council are people whose roots in the prairies go back to the first white settlers or whose roots give them a strong sense of earth, land, and heritage. As an example, I am the fifth generation of Kindschers to have lived on an 1871 homestead claim above the Republican River near Guide Rock, Nebraska, and my folks still farm there. □ □ North American Bioregional Congress To congress: To come together in a spirit of earth stewardship, translating ecological law into human law—as a constitution and as an ecopolitical platform for the economic, agricultural, technological, social, and political rdnhabiting of North America under the ethic of sustainability. Such was the intention of the resolution passed by the second Ozark Area Community Congress on October 12,1981, calling for the convening of individuals, organizations, and native peoples at a North American Bioregional Congress (NABC) [see RAIN IX:3[. The hope is that people will coordinate as much as possible within their regions and then bring that energy to . NABC I. Listed below are the bioregional groups that have formed or are in the process. NABC I will be held May 21-25,1984, at Camp Doniphan, northeast of Kansas City, Missouri. The cost is $130 to $150, depending on your accomrnodations. The organizers urge interested participants to preregister now, so that they can anticipate the needs of the entire body. Send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to NABC, Box 129, Drury, MO 65638. If you can't attend, you can read the report, which will contain caucus reports, resolutions, position papers, and information on future NABC activities. Please reserve a report now by sending $10 to the above address. Bioregional Congresses The Great Lakes Bioregional Congress (held first congress in October 1983), Route 1, 586 Casson Road East, Maple City, MI 49664 Kansas Area Watershed Council (held its second council in May 1983), 1225 Delaware, Lawrence, KS 66044 Ocooch Bioregional Network (first met in October 1983), Route 1, Box 77A, Chaseburg, W1 54621 Ozark Area Community Congress (congressed for the fourth time in October 1983), Box 129, Drury, MO 65638 Areas Organizing Colorado Plateau: (planning a Southwest Bioregional Congress for summer 1984), SBC, 227 East Coronado, Sante Ee, NM 87501 Interior Low Plateau: (Kentucky/ Tennessee) Tennessee Organic Grower, Route 6, Box 56B, Crossville, TN 38555 Interior Pacific Northwest: Friends of the Trees Society, Box 1064, Tonasket, WA 98855 Maritime Pacific Northwest: RAIN, 2270 NW Irving, Portland, OR 97210 New England Region: Institute for Social Ecology, Box 89, Plainfield, VT 05667 New York State: New York State Coalition for Local Self-Reliance, Box 6222, Syracuse, NY 13217 Southeast: The Long Branch Environmental Education Center, Route 2, Box 132, Leicester, NC 28748, and SUNREP, Box 10121, Knoxville, TN 37919
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