Jared
Jared

Jared

“I Will Believe It A Good Comfortable Road”

Over 10 years ago during vacation bible school a friend shared this passage with the students she was teaching. The passage was from a book about the travels of Lewis and Clark.

May 26, 1805 – The camp was in Fergus County, Montana, two miles below the mouth of Windsor Creek. The men used the tow lines to pull the boats up the river. Lewis saw the Rocky Mountains for the first time and left a lengthy description of the countryside: “In the after part of the day I also walked out and ascended the river hills which I found sufficiently fortiegueing. on arriving to the summit one of the highest points in the neighbourhood I thought myself well repaid for any labour; as from this point I beheld the Rocky Mountains for the first time these points of the Rocky Mountains were covered with snow and the sun shone on it in such manner as to give me the most plain and satisfactory view. while I viewed these mountains I felt a secret plaesure in finding myself so near the head of the heretofore conceived boundless Missouri; but when I reflected on the difficulties which this snowy barrier would most probably throw in my way to the Pacific, and the sufferings and hardships of myself and party in them, it in some measure counterbalanced the joy I felt in the 1st moments in which I gazed on them; but as I have always held it a crime to anticipate evils I will believe it a good comfortable road untill I am compelled to believe differently.” -Meriwether Lewis

Adapted from the NPS.gov Lewis and Clark timeline. Emphasis added.

The quote may have been misplaced in my mind for almost 10 years but recent events in my life knocked it lose from the back of my mind and brought it to my memory. There may be 200 years between Mr. Lewis and myself but the words so succinctly describe my feelings on the adventure that was awaiting me.

Protected: Of Value and Values on the Tribal Reservation

This blog entry is a brief reflection and commentary on tribal values based on experiences growing up in the Midwest.

While eating lunch in the office break room I thumbed through The Wall Street Journal. Today was one of the rare exceptions that an article caught my interest. The Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians made the cover of the Money & Investing section. According to the article the tribe is refusing to pay a bond to a private investment company based on a technicality. The WSJ article seems to support the same stereotypes that accompanied my recollection of growing up in the Midwest.

With the experience of having spent almost my entire life near various tribal reservations, and only 2 hours from Lac du Flambeau, my perspective on the rights the tribes posses has always been accompanied with a lot of questions and misunderstandings. As an outsider looking in the apparent value placed on natural resources by the local tribes was often spoken of in less than stellar regards. Perhaps the local fisherman who I listened to had a biased opinion of tribal rights when fishing was bad because the tribal members had the right to commercially net fish in Lake Superior. A poor summer of fishing on Lake Superior was often blamed by aggressive netting earlier in the spring. Was it a legitimate argument? I don’t know, I’m not a biologist. It was just one of several common stereotypes that regional tribes were branded with.