Mary McBee and her pipeline fighting pup, Sygna
The following post was written by Mary McBee from Tama, Iowa
It was 1963, over a half-century ago. I was a very young wife and mother, living with my husband and two small children in an 8’ by 40’ trailer, one we had tucked back beneath luxurious oak and hickory trees. We lived on Meskwaki tribal lands where my husband and children were members. We had no running water, but did have more luxuries than many tribal homes at that time. Living close to the settlement border and near farm lands, we had access to electricity. For water, however, we drove several miles to the PowWow grounds down by the Iowa River every few days to hand pump water from the community well…. a bit challenging with two small children and diapers (no disposables at that time).
We lived near my in-laws, Frank and Adeline Wanatee, who had a small two-room house, and we all used the same driveway. The family garden lay between us, and a communal outhouse was close by. In those days, most of the tribe was very poor and so were we, which in no way lessened my appreciation for living there.
One beautiful crisp fall day after my dutiful trip to the outhouse, I noticed Frank sitting on a bench beside their home. He was elderly by then, retired, and I enjoyed listening to his interesting thoughts and stories. He motioned for me to come and sit, so I did.
He began talking in his slow quiet way, with the ever-present silent pauses between.
“When I was a young boy, I remembered the Old Ones saying, ‘The White Man will burn the earth someday.’ I used to think about that, and in my teen years, thought that must mean that the white man will destroy the earth with fire.
Then, as I got older, and in the 1940’s after America dropped the atomic bomb, I thought, ‘No, the old ones must have meant that the white man will destroy the earth with nuclear fire.’
Now, however, in the 1960’s, I’ve decided they must have meant that the white man will burn the earth with all the chemicals being used on the land and in the air.”
I often think back to that story shared by Frank over a half-century ago. Now it’s 2016, and here we are, fighting global warming and climate change due to all the carbon being spewed up into earths atmosphere. Then I think, perhaps that’s what the Old Ones meant about ‘burning the earth’?
Or …. perhaps it’s all of the above?
Mary McBee
August, 2016
Pipeline construction underway in Boone County, Iowa near the Des Moines River, September 2016