A History of the Public Lands Debate

22 pages

All Over the Map: Rethinking American Regions

Even as Americans keep moving all over the map in the late twentieth century, they cherish memories of the places they come from. But where do these places—these regions—come from? What makes them so real? In this groundbreaking book a distinguished group of historians explores the concept of region in America, traces changes the idea has undergone in our national experience, and examines its meaning for Americans today. Far from diminishing in importance, the authors conclude, regional differences continue to play a significant role in Americans\u27 self-image. Regional identity, in fact, has always been fed by the very forces that many people think threaten its existence today: a central government, an aggressive economy, and connections with places beyond regional boundaries. Calling into question widely held notions about how Americans came to differ from one another and explaining why those differences continue to flourish, this iconoclastic study—by scholars with differing regional ties—will refresh and redirect the centuries-old discussion over Americans\u27 conceptions of themselves.https://scholarship.richmond.edu/bookshelf/1257/thumbnail.jp

Land, Justice, And Angie Debo Telling The Truth To-And About-Your Neighbors

When Angie Debo was an old woman, she lived in her hometown of Marshall, Oklahoma, where she had warm and close ties with her neighbors. She also had a more geographically dispersed network: a list of several hundred people, scattered around the nation, whom she would mobilize to write senators and congressmen, or to the president, on behalf of particular campaigns for Indian rights. She sent the members of her network mimeographed letters and in urgent circumstances made phone calls to them. She got her network geared up to write in support of Alaskan Native land claims, an enlargement of the Havasupai Reservation, and groundwater rights for the Papago or Tohono O\u27odham. She attended closely to events in Marshall and to events all over North America. After she retired, Angie Debo did some international traveling. She went to Europe, Africa, and Mexico. In Africa she became friends with a woman who took care of her when she got sick; they stayed in touch for the rest of her life, and Angie Debo helped pay for the education of the children of this African woman. Debo traveled to Russia, and there is something very remarkable about the way she had been interested in and preoccupied by Russia since she was a teenager in Oklahoma. During the Vietnam War, Debo found her thoughts repeatedly turning to this tragedy; it seemed to her an extension of what she called America\u27s real imperialism, which had begun with the conquest of Indian people and which relied on an unfortunate trust in military force. Until the United States reckoned with the early history of its imperialismusually called westward expansion or the frontier -it would occupy a morally compromised position, Debo thought, in trying to uplift the world and spread ideals of democracy and justice.1 Angie Debo\u27s interests then were at once very local and very expansive, truly global. Her sense of the world\u27s connectedness is one dimension of a host of qualities that make her an inspiration. She was entirely and committedly Oklahoman, and entirely and committedly human. Contemplating her example truly stirs the soul. Angie Debo\u27s capacity to inspire is also marked by a zone of mystery. Her courageous campaign to reveal the injustices done to Indian people, to recognize and explore their internal perspectives and experiences, and, generally, to write honestly and realistically about the process of displacement that put white Americans in possession of most of Oklahoma and the American West contains a puzzle: while Debo is best known for this critical and searching perspective on the conquest of North America, on other occasions she wrote in quite a different vein, returning to a much more familiar and conventional celebration of pioneer hardihood and enterprise. This is a paradox.2 In the twenty-first century, I am less able to cruise past this paradox. While a comparison to Jekyll and Hyde would certainly overstate the case, there do seem to be two public-record Angie Debos: Angie Debo #1, the justly famous, often-reprinted, often-cited author, who wrote critically and openly about the cruel, manipulative process of dispossession that made the modern state of Oklahoma possible, and Angie Debo #2, the much less famous, much less reprinted, much less cited author, who wrote cheerfully about pioneer courage and determination and who made and retained an easy peace with the frontier history associated with Frederick Jackson Turner. Angie Debo # 1 is the author of the famous books Rise and Fall of the Choctaw Republic (1934), And Still the Waters Run (1940), and A History of the Indians of the United States (1970). Angie Debo #2 is also the author of two books, her only novel-Prairie City (1944) and Oklahoma: Foot-loose and Fancy-free (1949)

Review of The American West: A Narrative Bibliography and a Study in Regionalism

Legal scholar Charles Wilkinson reads and recommends books as if the Video Age were not upon us and as if the ideal of an educated, reflective citizenry might be within reach. In the four hundred and eighty-eight items listed in this bibliography, writers have done their part in defining a geographical region, in giving the West a sense of place, a sense of itself. If Westerners say yes to the invitation these writers offer, then the consequences could be direct and practical: When a people gains a sense of itself, wise decisions are likely to follow (p. 90), wise decisions manifested in more appropriate laws and self-governance

A History of the Public Lands Debate

22 pages