![]() Now is the moment to rise above the influences of personal or corporate economic gain by aligning with a larger identity as citizens of the earth in order to ensure a viable, vibrant future for our grandchildrens’ grandchildren. Unfortunately, politicians don’t always follow the will of the people as the system intended. Our shared appreciation helps us navigate our sometimes contentious local politics. We have inherited the dilemmas that result from this shift in thinking.Īnd yet, one of the best things about living here is that so many people love this place deeply. The indigenous understanding of a unified, shared landscape that was life-sustaining and therefore the responsibility of all was superseded by the notion of individual land ownership. While this grid simplifies certain transactions, it also creates the illusion that each piece is disconnected from the others around it and superimposes a mental image of land divided from water and from itself, rather than reinforcing the deep knowing of the ways the land is connected and part of the whole. The current system of surveying land, dividing it into a rectangular grid and selling off pieces of it, began with Thomas Jefferson after the Revolutionary War as means of selling what was considered uninhabited land in order to pay off the war debt and create a nation of yeoman farmers. Surely our hearts would be nourished by the poetry of the words themselves. How would it shape us to live with those names on a daily basis? Perhaps we would identify more deeply with the landscape. How beautiful it would be to see signs with the names of the original settlements in the area. As I drive along I sometimes wonder what it would be like to use those original names, to see the names on signs alongside – or instead of – the names grafted on by outsiders who did not understand the complexities of living in balance here, and did not honor their predecessors by learning the local names. Fort Bragg, on the other hand, was established to keep order on the Indian Reservation built here, and was named after a confederate general. ![]() 2 Notice how most of these names refer to a river, a watershed or a place and describe a practical, lived meaning. Big River was Bidapte Icheche was on the lower Garcia River Kibesillah is a Pomo word signifying ‘flat rock’ or ‘head of the valley’. Katuli was above the Navarro Bokeya was the territory stretching from the Navarro to Gualala, and Gualala is a Pomo word that means ‘where the waters flow down’. It was a Coastal Yuki village used as a trading and gathering spot for tribes from all over California, from the Chumash in Santa Barbara to the Yurok in Humboldt. For example, Mussel Rock, between Westport and Ft. Their original names for this area are beautiful and have special meaning. The Pomo, Yuki, Miwok, Wintun, and other native peoples inhabited this area for countless generations before white people arrived. How silent would the night be? How filled with sound the day, especially at dawn as the forests, meadows, dunes and wetlands were waking up? I try to imagine the depth of each unique soundscape and I feel sad that those of us alive today will likely never hear the music of an intact biosphere. I like to imagine our beautiful stretch of coastline in its pre-conquest state, everything humming and roaring, buzzing and singing in a complex, interwoven orchestra of natural sounds. One can only imagine streams so full of salmon that horses refused to cross flocks of birds so thick they blocked the sun and, of course, the towering, original redwood forests before they were clear-cut. It’s easy to see, even now, the exquisite vibrancy of this beautiful place. ![]() Even more remarkable is the fact that at the time of first contact, what is now California supported the greatest possible variety, vitality and density of animals, fish, birds, plants and humans, all of them well-fed and thriving thanks to the skillful management of the indigenous people here, with the knowledge that was developed and passed down for over 10,000 years. When Europeans first arrived in what is now the United States, Canada, Central and South America, the indigenous people they encountered were virtually disease-free because they lived in such profound balance with the natural world. Previously published in Real Estate Magazine, Ft Bragg, Ca, November 2014 ![]()
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