Fighting the Keystone-XL Pipeline: Unlikely Partners

This essay describes a relationship between two unlikely groups – a small Baptist Church in South Texas and Tar Sands Blockade in their efforts to fight the construction of the southern section of the Keystone-XL pipeline. Data were primarily collected from published data sources. It is argued that this relationship was made possible because each group held relatively non-gnostic commitments about social justice. This was true even though they had very different religious views. Gnosticism as a social phenomenon is explored, and it is suggested that modern idealism with its disregard for the environment is a type of “secular gnosticism.

Subdividing the Public Lands: The Apportionment and Settlement of Northeast New Mexico

The land of northeastern New Mexico, outside of the recognized title rights of the former Mexican citizens, became the public domain of the United States by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. This immediately allowed for US control over 10,000 square miles of land within the area east of the 105° meridian and north of a line roughly defined by Interstate 40 in Quay County and the boundary between San Miguel and Guadalupe counties. Portions of the northeast which were excluded from this public domain by the action of the Court of Private Land Claims between 1891 and 1904 were the few large area Mexican land grants mentioned previously in a separate section of this report. These grant lands straddled the perennial surface water systems of the Canadian, the Gallinas, the Mora, and the Vermejo-Cimarron rivers. The survey of New Mexico, initiated in 1854, was designed to establish areas of the territory which could be occupied by settlers, to reserve land as a revenue source for public institutions, and to evaluate the land granted to communities, families and to individuals prior to 1848

Peopling the Northeast Plains

During the 1880s and the early part of the 1890s the cattle companies were continuing to hire ranch hands to prove up homesteads around water holes. At the same time the early farmers began to appear in the northeast, but not in the form of the sodbusters who were to later swarm over the highland llanos during the early part of the twentieth century. The early farmers were not labeled nesters, which was the derogatory term coined by the stockmen for the people who turned small parcels of the grassland into fields and began erecting fences over the plains. The first pioneer homestead families were located in the canyons and in the areas not covered by the prime grasslands. These settlers moved into the northeastern plains from a few locales in the west. After they had established their settlement areas and acquired the land and water rights to support themselves, the rush of farmers onto the upland grasslands was just beginning. These homesteaders, who came from the east, blanketed the remaining lands of the northeast that could be farmed

Homesteading and Public Land Law

It is important to the discussion of Butcher and Wyatt as homesteaders to understand the public land laws which affected their choice of land. Consequently, a review of the history of land legislation affecting the allocation and use of the public domain is in order and particularly that legislation under which Butcher and Wyatt made entry: the Homestead Act of 1862. Through this act early settlers around Tucumcari were able to acquire, at little expense, 160 acre tracts of land. In addition, the shortcomings and beneficial aspects of other acts of Congress concerning the acquisition of public domain will be examined as they provided the guidelines under which homesteaders received patents around Tucumcari throughout the early years of the twentieth century. The focus of this discussion will center on the use and abuse of the public domain by both the private sector and the various government regulatory agencies

Reasons for Vacating the Land

According to interview data, the mid droughts began very early. The first was in 1908 and 1909 followed by a low rainfall period of 1910 and 1911. These mild droughts were followed by another dry period in 1925 and 1926 and later by the dust bowl period of the mid-1930s. To experience even a mild drought was sufficient to weed out the land speculators who had little interest in farming the land. There were also a number of people who intended to farm, but arrived with insufficient funds to purchase the necessary equipment to produce enough surplus to ride through a period of harsh conditions. Bank loans for equipment would frequently place the farmer into a debt ceiling that would be impossible for him to recover from. These debts, compounded by crop failures and by bank failures in Des Moins (1912) and Clayton (1921) that instigated immediate repayment of outstanding loans, were sufficient to force the farmer off the land. The abandoned property would be foreclosed by the lending company in order to partially recover the debts

Natural Elements of Northeastern New Mexico

Northeastern New Mexico is one of the most diverse natural landscapes in the state. Large volcanic vents dot the basalt flows that cap the piedmont surface, providing a very rugged horizon rather than the flat monotonous topography usually associated with the Great Plains of the United States. The dissected and rolling plains are broken by severely eroded canyons that have cut through the sandstone layers topped with caliche. In some areas where the major drainages confluence (such as the intersection of the Ute and Canadian or the Conchas and the Canadian) the narrow canyons broaden into extensive valleys characterized by isolated piedmont remnants. The entire area drains to the east and onto the flatter plains of West Texas. The western edge of the northeast is well defined by the dramatic snow-capped and rugged front range of the Rocky Mountains...an edge that is visible from most high points throughout the area surveyed for this report

Elements to Assist the Farmers And Promote Immigration

The purpose of this portion of the resource survey of the northeastern plains is to reconstruct the settlement phase which occurred between 1880 and 1940, the period generally referred to as the homesteading era. To reconstruct the 60 years of human settlement and resettlement required an extensive review of secondary information resources as well as a field project(?) oriented around the collection of data from primary information resources. Much of the information that was compiled was directed toward a mapping project of the northeastern plains which included the location of the places named by the settlers as well as identifying the locations of both published resources (secondary data) and [illegible] settlers who were interviewees (primary data). The bulk of this data will then be transferred to a sequence of maps indicating the chronological process(?) of settlement history which will be followed by a series demonstrating the rise and fall of central places ( [illegible] towns) in the northeastern plains

Dry-Land Farming

Dry-land farming is a system of land use, crop management, and timing of operations that are designed to cope with the conditions of climate and rainfall of a semiarid land. Experiments began on dry-land techniques as early as the 1860s and the methods became well-known in the Great Plains by the end of the 1880s. A major component of dry farming, which is a term (along with dry-land farming) of western American origin, is the conservation of soil moisture during dry weather by special methods of tillage and plant adaptation. It is not farming without moisture, but farming where moisture is insufficient; often permitting agriculture to be practiced successfully in areas where rainfall is less than ten to twelve inches

Interviews with Pioneers

There are many first-generation pioneers still living in northeastern New Mexico. Most are over eighty years of age and several are nearing the century mark. Their recall of the era of farming is remarkable and it is fascinating to record the events which are firmly locked into their minds. Many decades have passed since their families abandoned the farm and the homestead and either migrated to urban areas for employment or remained on the land by converting to a cattle economy. When probed or reminded of events through the line of questioning, most interviewees would discourse with clear details and dates about events between the period between 1890 to 1930

The Poetry of John Dewey

This essay examines the poetry of John Dewey, 101 poems in total. Characteristic of the rhymed and metered poetry of the period, they show a very human side of Dewey. This analysis argues that many of his poems deal with existential themes—love, finitude, and God, for example. On a deeper level these poems are also show connections to Dewey’s philosophy, in particular his ideas about social change and dualism