This Land is Not Our Land


Wonderland of Rocks. That’s the old name for the Chiricahua National Monument in Southeast Arizona. It’s otherworldly, like Bryce Canyon in Utah or the Badlands in South Dakota. Hiking through them gave me the feeling of being in a sacred place and made me think about the massive and wondrous geologic history of the earth and about the Apaches who used to live here.

The nutshell history: The Apaches were fierce warriors and resisted Spanish colonization beginning in the 1500s. Then, after Mexican independence in 1821, they resisted the flood of Mexican migrants coming to their territory from the south.  Then came the U.S. with its settlers and calvary. In 1886, Geronimo surrendered to the U.S. and the Apaches were “relocated” to reservations in Oklahoma and New Mexico. And we know what has happened after that.

I call Cochise and Geronimo to mind. Presente!


Being here in the midst of the US militarization against immigrants, I remember the historical context of this land. It was stolen from the indigenous people who had been here for centuries. And those people were wiped out. The same genocidal imperialism that our country is known for now is what established our national borders in the first place. And now we defend these borders as if they were divinely ordained and we are the chosen people, defending ourselves against the very victims of our imperialism and global capitalism.
 
I am often struck with the lack of historical memory on the part of US citizens. This seems especially true about what is happening on our southern border. As Jimmy Breslin once wrote: “The fences at Tijuana were erected by a government that doesn’t know the history of the last twenty minutes.” This land is not our land, it was not made for you and me. Woody Guthrie was wrong.

If only we knew who we have been. And still are.

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