July/August 1984 RAIN Page 29 These people, while living in harmony with nature and wresting a living from the land, survived war and bushwhackers. With wizened skills and stubborn independence they rode above those who would exploit their labor and belittle their accomplishments. Times have changed. The isolation that kept the Ozarks unique is frail. But there still are descendants of the old Ozarker around. You may not be able to identify them by their dress or style of living, but then those were never true determining factors. No, an Ozarker is the person whose eyes shine when he describes his homeland; the person who chooses rocky bluffs over fertile lowlands and air sweet with the scent of dogwood over high wages. He is not the person trapped by ignorance and poverty, but rather the person imprisoned by love for a rare work of beauty. When I hear someone suggest that backwardness or fear hold people here, I too wonder. Perhaps it does hold some. But then I remember. How in winter the frosty grasses break beneath my feet and forests stand black against an ice blue sky! How spring comes early, bringing fragrant blossoms and the rushing maraud of swollen streams singing the song of new beginnings! I've walked in a summer fairyland where the sun's rays slip gently through the leafy fingers of trees, lighting warmly on mossy banks. And I've felt the autumn sun and breathed the autumn air, dense with the aroma of oak leaf and wood smoke. □ □ The following piece is excerpted from the introduction to the bioregional bundle Home, Sweet Home: An Ozark Sampler. The bundle contains a wealth of resource information about the Ozarks as well as posters, a crystal, postcards, a record, poems, and photos (as well as the essay above). New.Life Farm (Box 129, Drury, MO 65638) publishes the bundle ($12.50 ppd.). For more information about the Ozarks, subscribe to Talking Oak Leaves (quarterly, $2lyearfrom PO Box 187 HSJH, Springfield, MO 65801) or Ozarkia (quarterly, $10lyear from Eco Center, 730 West Maple, Fayetteville, AR 72701). —TK O H1>ML O an Ozark Sampler by Denise Henderson It is a challenge to take the essence of a bioregion and put it in an envelope. But this sampler tries to do just that.... Home, Sweet Home can be enjoyed by anyone, but it was created especially for the people of the Ozarks. Its purpose, besides entertainment, is to foster a new type of Ozark self-awareness, a kind of regional pride, which we call bioregionalism.... The Ozarks are easily recognizable as a bioregion. They are an ancient plateau bounded and cut by several important rivers and their tributaries. It is fragmented politically by five states; the greatest areas are in Arkansas and Missouri, and the region touches into Oklahoma, Kansas and Illinois. Despite this, the natural integrity of the region remains. Hills and "hollers," spring-fed streams, and thick forests lush with greenery and wildlife are among the Ozarks' identifying characteristics.... Most of us love our homes and want to protect and improve them. If we extend our thinking to include a whole region as "home," instead of just a house, we begin to glimpse the bioregional perspective. There are people here, your neighbors, who are actively studying and trying to protect the natural systems of the Ozarks. Many are using their expertise to design and build human systems that follow natural law. Among them are water quality consultants, solar home builders, organic food producers, and holistic health practitioners. Home, Sweet Home is the result of a collective effort by a number of these people to produce a resource tool for the Ozarks that informs and inspires. The Green Pages is the directory for goods and services from businesses that uphold the bioregional perspective. The bibliography is another resource which covers many facets of the whole bioregion. Glimpses of how we can utilize, protect, and enjoy the Ozarks' natural resources are provided in "Regional Seasonal Diet," "Some Beneficial Ozark Herbs," and the water quality brochure. Dqvid Haenke's "Varmint Garden" and Ron Hughes' "Ozark Mountain Mother Earth News Freak" (45 rpm) lighten up the packet with a little humor. Jacqueline Froelich's professional graphics and calligraphy make the geology poster, the map, and the Ozark Seasons poster worthy of any wall. Insights into the present and past Ozark culture can be found in native Ruth Downen's inspirational essay "The Ozarks" [excerpted above] and Sandy Primm's prose "En Route to Newburg." And the cultures of ancient inhabitants are described in "Native People of the Past, Ancient Cultures in the Ozarks" by Bob Liebert. We hope that Home, Sweet Home presents you with a view of the Ozarks from a new perspective. If Ozark people can take a new look around our homeland and make a conscious effort to think and act with a biore- giohal perspective, maybe we can turn around some of the ravages of the past; the logged-out forests, eroded pastures, gravel-choked rivers and sewage- fouled lakes can be restored, and the beautiful and balanced ecosystems of the Ozarks can be preserved. And we and our children can still live a full and abundant life in this beautiful place using the same natural laws that made the Ozarks beautiful in the first place. □ □ ,
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