The Journal of 2020 Foresight

Reports from the Knowledge Labs about our recent findings, research topics, and interviews with lifestyle leaders who are creating their own futures.

How to stimulate your own powers of foresight. Consider the following thought provokers. Ask yourself, in these categories what are the brand new trends and forces? Which are the ones growing in importance? Which current forces are loosing their steam? Which have peaked or are reversing themselves? Which are the "wildcards" about to disrupt us in the future? POLITICAL AND TECHNICAL thought for food: Electronics, Materials, Energy, Fossil, Nuclear, Alternative, Other, Manufacturing (techniques), Agriculture, Machinery and Equipment, Distribution, Transportation (Urban, Mass, Personal, Surface, Sea, Subsurface, Space), Communication (Printed, Spoken, Interactive, Media), Computers (Information, Knowledge, Storage & Retrieval, Design, Network Resources), Post-Cold War, Third World, Conflict (Local, Regional, Global), Arms Limitation, Undeclared Wars, Terrorism, Nuclear Proliferation, Weapons of Mass Destruction, Governments (More/Less Power and Larger or Smaller Scale), Taxes, Isms: Nationalism, Regionalism, Protectionism, Populism, Cartels, Multinational Corporations, Balance of Trade, Third Party Payments, Regulations (OSHA, etc.) Environmental Impact, U.S. Prestige Abroad. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC Food for thought: Labor Movements, Unemployment / Employment Cycles, Recession, Employment Patterns, Work Hours / Schedules, Fringe Benefits, Management Approaches, Accounting Policies, Productivity, Energy Costs, Balance of Payments, Inflation, Taxes, Rates of Real Growth, Distribution of Wealth, Capital Availability and Costs, Reliability of Forecasts, Raw Materials, Availability and Costs, Global versus National Economy, Market versus Planned Economies, Generations: Y, X, Boomers, Elderly, Urban vs. Rural Lifestyles, Affluent vs. Poor, Neighborhoods and Communities, Planned or Organic Growth. Got Knowledge?

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Friday, May 27, 2005

Four Corners, Seven Directions, But One Wakan Tanka

Chapter Three: The Outpost

By Steve Howard, CKO
The Knowledge Labs

Table of Contents
Chapter One: Basecamp
Chapter Two: The Ridge
Chapter Three: The Outpost
Chapter Four: The Tribal Territories

“Some of the most charming moments come when Clark sits down with Nicholas Biddle, the highborn Philadelphia attorney who would edit his journals. Biddle interrogated Clark on every detail of the expedition: "Did both Indian men and women have the venereal? Are there oysters on the Pacific coast? How do Indian mothers flatten the heads of their babies? Does [Clark's slave] York have a wife?" The touchiest question focused on what Biddle delicately called "the point of rank and command" between Lewis and Clark. "Equal in every point of view," insisted Clark, still bitter that he had been denied the rank of captain that Lewis enjoyed.”

Jonathan Kirsch

FOUR CORNERS, Navajo Nation. “The only good redskin is a ….”
Much of Arizona's history, and of the Four Corners Region in general, revolved around settling the ”Indian Issue” - making the territory carved out of Utah, Colorado and Mexico and New Mexico territories specifically - safe for settlers, merchants, miners, and the industrialist's investments in the railroad. And, for finding Grey Owl's first geo-cache somewhere in Apache County.

Journal of 2020 Foresight: In the mid-1840s, it became an "obvious (or undeniable) fate." Thanks to John O'Sullivan, a wave of propaganda described it as a “divinely-inspired mission to expand itself and its system of government from ocean to ocean and to the western frontier.”

Eagle: It?

J2020F: Manifest Destiny. Four decades after Lewis and Clark's expedition, victory in the Mexican-American War brought a surge in patriotism with the acquisition of new southwestern lands.

Pathfinder: In theory, one aspect of this desire was its principle to bring the ideals of democratic self-government to any peoples capable of it; in practice, however, this often meant excluding Native Americans.

Explorer: Sounds like the other underlying principle was the one practiced in Carson City, Nevada. The need to fund the Union's war effort.

Pathfinder: Right. And, the broad desire to acquire new lands, since land could represent potential income, wealth, self-sufficiency, and freedom.

J2020F: Decades later in Texas, because the Native Americans terrorized the new emigrants and delayed their settlements, Larry McMurty's pioneer family waited patiently to finally realize their dream -- the acquisition of new land as a way of demonstrating they were no longer shiftless drifters. They became landowners.

Trailblazer: They waited until the Apaches were subdued?

J2020F: No. McMurty names Quanah Parker of the Commanches and their allies the Kiowas, who violently objected to the slaughter of the buffalo - and ultimately their way of life.

Pathfinder: Around the same time Kit Carson starved the Navajos into submission in what is now Arizona, and the US Military had to answer the question, now what about the Apaches?

Eagle: Well, it's a familiar story. In 1863 the discovery of gold in Apache territory brought an influx of white settlers and prospectors who fan out into the mineral-laden mountains.

Explorer: And, just as familiar is the boom - bust cycle. New settlements sprang up over night only to become ghost towns when their “mother lodes” ran out.

J2020F: To get a better “feel” for the times you really should see Jeremy Rowe's slide show beginning with Geronimo between 1850 to 1920.

Eagle: Meanwhile Cochise (Chiracahua Apache) attacked white settlements until 1872 when he was forced onto a reservation

Pathfinder: After the death of Cochise in 1874, his oldest son, Taza, became chief of the Chiricahuas, and Taglito (Tom Jeffords) continued as agent on the Apache Pass reservation. At one time Cochise had worked as a woodcutter for the Butterfield Overland stagecoach station in Apache Pass, now Ft. Bowie.

Eagle: But, in a series of events in the mid-1870s the Apaches were moved to Indian Territory at White Mountain in Eastern Arizona under John Clum who replaced Jeffords and encourages a self-government experiment on the reservation.

Pathfinder: Remember, as a way of life the Apaches had only known their 250-year history of war with the Spanish who, some say, taught them the fine art of torture and mutilation. Few of the 6000 Apaches remaining in the 1860s were of one mind. They divided into several bands each with their relative distrust of all whites.

Eagle: And, later as those bands were forced to move from White Mountain to San Carlos reservations the agency corruption added to the distrust, Geronimo assumes leadership when Cochise's son dies and takes 50% of the San Carlos bands with him across the Mexican border.

Pathfinder: Things don't get any better in the 1880s. In the early 1880s, Chiracahua Apache chief Geronimo continued to overrun the settlers and ranchers.

Eagle: But, the railroad, begun in the 1860s, reached the area two decades later in the 1880s, bringing with it greater numbers of settlers.

Explorer: Oh, yeah. As I recall, in March 8, 1881 the second transcontinental railroad was completed linking the Southern Pacific Railroad with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad at Deming in New Mexico Territory - stirring up even more resistance.

Pathfinder. Over time even the law-abiding reservation Apaches became more susceptible to invitations from the bands on the run to join them in their “war forever against the Mexicans and Americans.” On the reservation only Agent John Clum, though no “noble savage” true believer, “did right by them” and provided a fair and balanced view of territory relations by his example.

Eagle: When General George Crook, a man changed by too many campaigns against the Native Americans, assumes military command of the territory, he launches investigations into reservation corruption and holds out Clum's approach as a standard for returning local control to the reservation Apaches for self-governance.

Pathfinder: Meanwhile, Geronimo remains elusive crossing back and forth across the Mexican border raiding settlers on both sides.

Eagle: Crook realizes nothing will change unless he can craft a cross-border agreement with Mexico and together they can force Geronimo to terminate his raids.

Explorer: Wasn't this roughly the time - between 1878 and 1883 -- when John Fremont governed the newly formed Arizona Territory?

Pathfinder: Yes, indeed - roughly three decades after he held a similar position in California. A couple of years after Fremont left office, in 1883, the railroad reached Arizona bringing prosperity in the form of ranchers, prospectors and farmers.

Eagle: And a new means for quickly deploying troops.

J2020F: What do you mean?

Eagle: In the early weeks of 1883 General Crook moved part of this force down to the tracks of the new Southern Pacific Railroad, which streaked across Arizona to within about fifty miles of the border.

Pathfinder: That's right. With reservation Apaches serving as interpreters Crook and Geronimo meet to resolve the “Indian Issue” peacefully. The talks last for one year and consist of testing each other, building trust and judging each other's integrity.

Eagle: But as in so many agreements before, and since, between the “white father” and the native tribes - one man's agreement is another man's loophole.

J2020F: Why?

Eagle: Think about it. Why did the railroad bring the easterners? Because, gold had been discovered in the Apache territories.

Explorer: I think he's referring to the Tucson Ring and their political clout.

J2020F: The who? What do you mean?

Explorer: You have General Crook's record -- the Indians of Arizona or New Mexico for had committed no atrocities about a year.

Eagle: But, outside the sphere of his influence --the reservation and the Army posts -- Crook fell victim to a media campaign that portrayed him as being too easy on the Apaches.

J2020F: Media campaign?

Eagle: According to Dee Brown, the newspapers had condemned him for disseminating all sorts of exaggerations and falsehoods about the Indians.

J2020F: Who was the Tucson Ring?

Pathfinder: The local group of Arizonan merchants who gained from the influx of troops into the area. The military payroll brought money and profits to the local merchants.

Explorer: They really turned up the heat when Geronimo and his close friends got drunk and decided to go to Mexico.

Trailblazer: Like too many Southern California college students do today, eh?

Eagle: I won't even go there. Some suspected the Tucson Ring for planting rumors that Geronimo was about to be arrested. Others suggest they may have made it easy for him to get drunk - no one really knows today.

Explorer: Rather than face a noose and gallows, Geronimo split.

Eagle: “The Apaches Are Out” read the headlines. Dee Brown writes a trader from the Tucson Ring had filled Geronimo and company full of whiskey and lies about how the white citizens of Arizona would surely hang them if they returned.

Explorer: The Tucson Ring of contractors, seeing a chance for a profitable military campaign, called on General Crook to rush troops to protect defenseless white citizens from murderous Apaches.

Eagle: Geronimo, however, was desperately trying to avoid any confrontation with white citizens; all he wanted to do was speed his people across the border to the old Sierra Madre sanctuary in Mexico.

Pathfinder: What I recall is Crook tried to avoid the vast military operation that the Tucson Ring and their political friends in Washington were demanding of him.

J2020F: Did Crook prevail?

Pathfinder: No, as a result of Geronimo's flight, the War Department severely reprimanded Crook for his negligence, for granting unauthorized surrender terms, and for his tolerant attitude toward Indians.

Trailblazer: So the political machine got what they wanted from Washington?

Explorer: Well, he immediately resigned. Nelson (“Bear Coat”) Miles a brigadier general eager for promotion replaced him in 1886, and got the job done as he had in almost all of the other major Indian campaigns.

J2020F: Other major Indian campaigns?

Explorer: He defeated the Kiowa, Comanche and the Southern Cheyenne; the Lakota Sioux; the Nez Pearce; the Chiricahua Apaches -- and brought the end to the Wild West.

J2020F: How so?

Explorer: He handled the last two significant leaders. He captured and imprisoned Geronimo. He brought to bear the military pressure that, with divine intervention, led to Sitting Bull's death.

Eagle: When Geronimo surrendered for the last time, the Great Father (Grover Cleveland), who believed all the lurid newspaper tales of Geronimo's evil deeds, recommended that he be hanged.

Explorer: Dee Brown says, a counsel of men who knew better prevailed, and Geronimo was sent to Fort Marion, Florida - to join the rest of his tribe.

Eagle: If you've ever spent any time in humid Florida and then imagine contrasting that climate to this dry arid territory, you can foresee the drastic effect forced relocation would extract from the Apaches.

Pathfinder: Didn't Geronimo discover most of his friends dying? I believe that more than a hundred died of a disease diagnosed as consumption, right?

Eagle: Yes, and on top of that, the government took all of their children away from them and sent them to Indian school at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and more than fifty of their children died there.

Explorer: Not only were the ”hostiles” moved to Florida, but so were many of the “friendlies,” including he scouts who had worked for Crook.

J2020F: So, we can rightly conclude that Geronimo and his Chiricahuas were marked for extinction?

Explorer: Rightly or wrongly, but somehow Geronimo survives and manages to get transferred to Fort Sill where he dies in 1909 as a prisoner of war. But, as you can imagine, the citizens of Arizona had refused to readmit Geronimo's Chiricahuas within the state.

Eagle: So, when the Kiowa's and Comanche's learned of the Chiricahuas' plight from Lieutenant Hugh Scott, they offered their old Apache enemies a part of their reservation. Geronimo was buried in the Apache cemetery.

J2020F: I don't know. Today, if I had to choose between this arid climate in the very most northeast corner of Arizona - in Apache County -- and Florida's more humid climate I might jump at Florida.

Trailblazer. Speaking of today, on today's maps you'd see we were plainly in Arizona's northeast corner at the point where you can place your right foot in New Mexico, the other in Arizona, your left hand in Utah and your right hand in Colorado.

J2020F: Not a pretty picture when viewed from the south. Where to next?

Trailblazer: We're looking for N 36° 59.938 W 109° 02.707 on my GPS locator.

J2020F: Why?

Trailblazer: We're looking for Grey Owl's geo cache and I think I just found it over there, take a look. It's right by “wolfb8's.”

J2020F: What's in it?

Trailblazer: A note from Grey Owl about The Seven Directions and links from the journal kept by the original Arizona Learning Expedition:

"After Wakan Tanka, the Great Spirit, arranged the other six directions -- East, South, West, North, Above, and Below -- one direction was still left to be placed. But since that Seventh Direction was the most powerful of all, the one containing the greatest wisdom and strength, Wakan Tanka, the Great Spirit, wished to place it somewhere where it would not easily be found. So it was finally hidden in the last place humans usually think to look -- in each person's heart.”

And a list supplied by the Arizona Expedition:

Three innovation towns: Bisbee - 85603 (in Chochise County located on the Chochise County map, Slice of Bisbee, and the Bisbee Marquee).

The second: Jerome -- 86331 (featured in Fromm's guide and Desert USA with its Jerome Chamber of Commerce listing, -- “Jerome is located in the heart of northern Arizona only 90 miles from Phoenix, 60 miles from Flagstaff, 20 miles from Sedona, 30 miles from Prescott, 20 miles from Camp Verde, 10 miles from Cottonwood and about 6 miles from Clarkdale. You can even make a day trip to the Grand Canyon from here.”

And third: Page - 86040 (home of the Lake Powell Chronicle.)

One early growth: Yuma -- 85364, 65 and 67 (where you can get the inside scoop at the Yuma Sun.)

And finally, one mid-growth: Sedona -- 86336, 39, 40, 41, 51 (Sedona Red Rock News.)

Explorer: So what's next? Where do we go from here?

Trailblazer: To the coordinates for Grey Owl's second cache: N 36° 59.614 W 109° 02.460

J2020F: Where on earth? I mean, how do we get there?

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