Our Lands, Our Home, Our Heart : Reflections on Year 250 of the American Experience

“This land is your land and this land is my land
From the California to the New York island
From the redwood forests to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and me…” – Woody Guthrie 1940

“Nda’keena Weekeyaak Nda’ana” is a phrase in the Mohican language (Stockbridge-Munsee Community) that translates to “Our Lands, Our Home, Our Hearts.” It is the title of an educational and cultural initiative celebrating the heritage of the Mohican Nation, whose ancestral homelands include the Berkshires.  It represents a healing and cultural bridging that seems most appropriate as the various cultures and traditions within the United States struggle to deal with the legacy of a 250-year old Nation.

This Mohican phrase can be found by visiting The Mission House, a National Historic Landmark Colonial-era house and museum on Main Street in downtown Stockbridge, MA. It tells the story of the Stockbridge Mohicans and  a white missionary named John Sergeant who championed their cause from 1734 to his death in 1742. It is an archetypal story that is simple, complex, tragic, and yet hopeful. It is also a very American story that offers hope in these divisive and challenging times.

John Konkapot (born Pophnehonawoh), , was a highly regarded diplomat and community leader in the Mohican Nation’s experience in “Indiantown,” or the Stockbridge Mass., mission settlement of the early 18th century. Believed to have been born in 1690 and raised along the Hudson River, Konkapot was a courageous and cool-headed leader of the Mohican people at critical moments. He signed the earliest known land deed in the Berkshires in 1724. Konkapot was instrumental in a 1735 meeting of the tribe held at Housatonic, Massachusetts  to advocate for the decision to accept the offer to consolidate in the Stockbridge, Mass. mission. Some 150-200 Mohicans gathered and debated this decision—it was not unanimous. Konkapot was a major force in the eventual acceptance of this option as the best mode of survival at the time, as well as to accept Christianity. 

Konkapot served honorably as a Captain in King George’s War (3rd of the 4 French and Indian Wars) and conducted numerous land negotiations and petitions for justice for Mohican people throughout the mid-1700s, speaking up against inadequacies with the Stockbridge Indian School, nonpayment for Mohican lands, and political disenfranchisement. Heartbreakingly, he is believed to have died suffering and in debt in 1764 or 1765 around age 74. 

Although the good beginnings of such pioneering spirits as Konkapot and Sergeant did not immediately bear good fruit, they planted seeds of possibility…

Fast forward to Norman Rockwell’s famous 1967 illustration “Home for Christmas (Stockbridge Main Street at Christmas”) shows a Stockbridge 200 years later- now a quaint New England postcard.  Rockwell’s iconic picture shows an avenue mere blocks from the Mission House founded by John Sergeant. Was anything of that original spirit of the early 1730’s still alive? Of course, and just a few miles away. The year 1967 was also a landmark year- for Arlo Guthrie. His “Alice’s Restaurant” was set in the same Stockbridge, MA.  Arlo wrote a satirical folk song telling the (not sad) tale of Guthrie getting arrested for illegal trash dumping…trash from his friend’s restaurant in Stockbridge during Thanksgiving. A lifelong political activist, he used his musical and songwriting talents to highlight injustices everywhere. Truly a son of his father, Woody Guthrie.  

Norman Rockwell’s arc as illustrator extraordinaire of Americana changed drastically in the 1960’s, especially in response to social and racial injustice. He ended a 47- year relationship with the Saturday Evening Post  to illustrate changing times and the need to address social issues, unfettered by traditional norms and fears of negative feedback. 

The quote: ““the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice” has often been ascribed to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, but it came from the preaching of a 19^th century abolitionist minister Theodore Parker (1810-1860) from Lexington MA who was a reforming minister and a Transcendentist. Once again, we see the seeds of the “real” America being planted…one hundred years after the experiment of a colonial/indigenous community in Stockbridge.

It is nigh impossible to take in “America” in its entirety. We are too complex, too diverse and our history is too murky. In such circumstances I have always found it best to practice “child’s eye’s”. This means that to awake and look forward to a day of wonder and openness can actually create a consciousness field that is self-actualizing. It is equally true that we can create our worst living nightmares when we close our hearts and minds to our greatest possibilities. That is when we truly would go into decline. America, for me, is at a true crossroads of the Spirit. Will we choose to plant seeds of greatness and inclusiveness and justice and love, or will we fall prey as so many great civilizations before us to our worst expectations, fears and impulses?

Our Future is a choice…it is not pre-destined. Yet if we dare to seek to ascend to greater heights we need to go prepared. Part of this preparation is realizing that current states of confusion did not just spring up without precedent. Just because we did not see them coming does not mean they were not coming up from behind. Looking backwards with total honesty is often very painful, but it can be instructive, even helpful. If we look at our past and truly do our research with an eye towards positive examples of inspired humanity, we will find them. Here in Massachusetts, I am finding new hope, purpose and inspiration from the very many efforts to build bridges, create common good, live together in justice and peace that have been started here over the centuries. I am sure that every region of our great country has produced heroes, heroines, and models of community. It is our job, our sacred trust to find them (again) and relight those fires of Liberty and Justice for All. Otherwise, all that has been accomplished here to date has been for naught, and the Great Experiment is over and was only ever a fraud, a Great Illusion. I have not given up, and I encourage each of us to re-new the Dream. 

It is said that Fear is contagious…Yes, but so is Love, Truth, Justice, and Peace. Also, as we dream Big Dreams, let us commit to accomplishing them through Small Deposits of Kindness (to strangers), Justice (to the oppressed), and Love (to all who would seek the American Dream).