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This is a contradictory land

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HPPR Radio Readers are talking about books that explore life on the High Plains.  Kent Haruf’s novel, Plainsong, gave us opportunities to consider the good, the bad, and the ugly in our small, often isolated, towns.

Our current book, SC Gwynne’sEmpire of the Summer Moon, considers our Western heritage, as fought in the 1800s on the high plains of central and west Texas.  When settlers moved in, fencing and cultivating land that had always been open and without borders, the Comanche attacked.

It seems understandable, that the Comanche would act to protect what had always been known as Comancheria. Historically, a warring tribe, Comanche fought to death. On horseback, Comanche covered hundreds of miles of plains quickly, raided, then seemingly disappeared.  They were good at war. But, in the Texan settlers, the Comanche met opponents unlike any they’d ever encountered.

According to Gwynne, the Texans “were tougher, meaner, almost impossible to discourage.” Gwynne also writes that the Texans “were willing to take absurd risks to secure …a plot of dirt” and they were willing to annihilate native tribes.

By 1867, after some 30 years of war, few believed the Comanche way of life could last. At Medicine Lodge, Chief Ten Bears said, “It is too late. The white man has the land we love.” Historian Pekka Hamalainen observes that  Ten Bears’ pessimism for the Comanche survival on the plains was possibly a consequence of Ten Bears’ visit to Washington  where he had experienced American cities, factories, railroads, telegrams, all of which propelled settlers and soldiers west. 

Eight years later, property lines, ranches and railroads prevailed, and the Comanche surrendered – their raiding and ransoming, their horses, buffalo and fluid borders, gone.

You’ve probably guessed by now that I sorta regret that ending. But who can live on the high plains and NOT love its openness, its bowl of blue sky, NOT yearn for herds of buffalo and wild horses? I do appreciate grocery stores, wifi, and two-lane highways (with our intermittent passing lanes) as much as anyone.

But I’m seeing that the Comanche-Texan conflict over land use propelled by  technological innovations parallels our own here-and –now on the High Plains. 

Can we imagine what future technologies – for energy, telecommunications,  transportation—what future needs--for water--could next disrupt our land, our lives? Can we preserve our open spaces, our native species, sustain our farming and ranching, our ways of life? In what ways might we adapt?

Let us know what you’re thinking: comments for Empire of the Summer Moon and for Plainsong can be posted at Radio Readers Forums at HPPR.org.

From Dodge City, I’m Jane Holwerda.