PRESERVED LAND FOR THE AGES

Preserved land, or land preservation, needs help.

You know the old saying, ‘they don’t make more land?’

It’s never more true than land holding Native American sites.

And that’s the problem.

I visited two federally recognized sites that were very significant from the inside.

From the outside they looked like the usual things to drive by.

And the funny thing was how easy they were to drive by, easy to miss.

One was a mound of dirt, the other a walkway along excavated sites.

The Preserved Land Drive By

If a piece of land doesn’t strike you as important enough to preserve, you may not be the best judge.

But, if you hold an office with decision making powers and one of your contributors needs a parcel of land for his trucking company, you might find one for him.

How many native sites have been paved over?

“Listen, Jimbo, it’s just a dirt lot waiting to go to work. There’s a kicker for your next election to make it happen. No one cares about this.”

Turns out people do care about a dirt lot because it’s more than a dirt lot. It’s where civilization in the region took an early hold and prospered.

It was preserved land before land preservation was cool.

Ignorance is no excuse with the accumulated evidence

The map shows local native communities in Phoenix and the irrigation canal systems they built off the Salt River.

It looks extensive, sustainable for thousands of years, and I like knowing that on a one hundred degree day in the desert.

But all it takes is calculated pressure on an office hero in a federal building to mark up a map for development in exchange for future promises.

With their pen they condemn preserving the past of a people they have no idea about. What they do know about is fund raising.

Luckily for the rest of us, native sites are gaining back momentum after a few years of moron opinions on what to do on public lands.

All it takes is a reality TV star with no experience in elected office who considers himself smarter than West Point generals and Annapolis admirals, smarter than climate scientists and world economists, smarter than everyone currently in Congress, everyone who has ever been in Congress, and everyone who ever will be in Congress, to not only stir the pot, but bring his own pot to stir.

The discussion over preserved land:

Anthropologist: We have evidence of significant populations on this land going back thousands of years.

Nope, I don’t see it.

Anthro: We have collected more material of significance from this site than came out of King Tut’s crypt.

I don’t doubt it, I’ve got a few nice pieces myself. But that’s Egypt. Apples and oranges here.

Anthro: This is the best evidence of early civilization in the region, maybe the continent. We’ve uncovered material earlier than anything to date.

You’re showing me stuff I’ve seen at a Manhattan museum. We have enough of it, but not enough gas and oil. See what I mean?

Anthro: This could be an archeological site rivaling Greece.

Funny you’d mention grease. It will now become a regional service center hub for supply chain support and truck maintenance.

Anthro: You will be paving over thousands and thousands of years of artifacts that tell our common story in America, in the world.

Think of it as encasing it for future nerds to dig up and be amazed. I’m saving it for them, and you. We could name the new facility after one of your tribes. Check with my parks guy.

Anthro: I am your parks guy.

Then we’re done. I’ve got to call Arizona with your approval.

Anthro: But I didn’t . . .

Thank you. Can you see yourself out? Mark?