ZOLTÁN GROSSMAN Faculty member in Geography and Native American Studies, The Evergreen State College Lab 1, Room 3012, 2700 Evergreen Pkwy. NW, Olympia, WA 98502 USA grossmaz@evergreen.edu Tel. (360) 867-6153

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Native Geographies course at

University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, 2003-04

 

 

UNLIKELY ALLIANCES:

Treaty conflicts and environmental cooperation

between Native American and rural White communities

Zoltan Charles Grossman

Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2002

529 pages; ISBN: 0-493-76089-X

Adviser: William Cronon

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ABSTRACT

The dissertation compares alliances of Native Americans and rural whites (particularly ranchers, farmers, and fishers) in the 1970s-2000s in Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Montana, South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin. It asserts that the level of interethnic cooperation is a key element in the success or failure of a movement for protection of a multiethnic rural area. The dissertation explores how and why certain groups of rural whites and Native peoples joined to protect a natural resource (such as fish or water) that had previously been a source of conflict between them. A perceived outside threat--such as a mine, dam, power plant, transmission line, or flight or bombing range--facilitated new bonds between local Native and non-Native communities. The alliances redrew perceived community boundaries to define neighboring ethnic "outsiders" as "insiders" who are dependent on common natural resources or a land base. These "geographies of inclusion" were more pronounced in areas that had experienced the most intense interethnic conflict over natural resources. The "particularist" assertion of Native American identity had not been in contradiction to a " universalist" project to bring together Native and non-Native communities. Interethnic unity strategies based solely on universalist commonalties (such as environmental protection) tend to fail without a concurrent process of equalization that respects particularist differences (such as Native treaty rights). Most strategies for ethnic conflict management focus on the national scale and the common bond of political citizenship. Ethnic conflict managers have not paid adequate attention to local or regional territorial identity as one strategy for addressing socially based conflict in multiethnic settings. A territorially based, multiethnic "place membership" may be more effective than "state citizenship" in lessening ethnic conflict and increasing cooperation between local communities.

 

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

List of maps

 

Acknowledgments

 

List of interviews

 

Introduction

 

I. Salmon, Dams and Water in the Pacific Northwest

 

II. Reflection on Ethnic Conflict Management

 

III. Military Projects in the Great Basin and Upper Midwest

 

IV. Reflections on Interethnic Movements and Environmental Justice

 

V. Ranchers, Farmers, and Indians on the Northern Plains

 

VI. Reflections on Sharing Sacred Land

 

VII. Fishing and Mining in Northern Wisconsin

 

VIII. Reflections on Exclusion and Inclusion

 

Conclusions

 

Bibliography

 

 

 

SELECTED DISSERTATION-RELATED ARTICLES / PRESENTATIONS

 

"Unlikely Alliances: Treaty Conflicts and Environmental

Cooperation Between Native American and Rural

White Communities," Powerpoint lecture at

Association of American Geographers (AAG),

Chicago 2006; U.W.-Stevens Point Earth Day 2005,

and talk at U.-W-Eau Claire Faculty Forum 2006.

Article in American Indian Culture and Research Journal

(AICRJ), Vol. 29, No. 4 (2005).

 

"Defending a Common Home: Native/non-Native

Alliances Against Mining Companies in Wisconsin,"

With Dr. Al Gedicks in In the Way of Development: Indigenous Peoples,

Civil Society, & the Environment. See map.

(London: Zed Press, 2004).

 

"Crandon mine victory won by a historic alliance,"

with Debra McNutt in the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram (Nov. 2, 2003)

and other websites and papers.

 

"Cowboy and Indian Alliances in the Northern Plains."

Agricultural History (Spring 2003 , Vol. 77 no. 2).

 

Effects of White Racial Advantages in Environmental Alliances,

on Wisconsin Ho-Chunk/farmer alliances against low-level jet flights,

bombing range, and Perrier, at Association of American Geographers (AAG)

annual conference, Los Angeles, 2002.

 

"Place membership" in ethnic conflict management: the case of Native Americans

and white ranchers/farmers, on rural environmental alliances in Oregon, Montana,

and South Dakota, at Association of American Geographers (AAG)

annual conference, New York, 2001.

 

Geographies of Inclusion: Interethnic Alliances for Environmental

Protection, on Wisconsin spearfishing and mining disputes,

at Association of American Geographers (AAG) annual conference,

Pittsburgh, 2000. Winner of 2000 AAG American Indian Speciality Group

student paper competition. Also at WestLakes AAG, (Northern Illinois

University, DeKalb), and Midwest Sociological Society conference (Chicago).

 

"Let's Not Create Evilness for This River: Interethnic Environmental

Alliances of Native Americans and Rural Whites in Northern Wisconsin."

In Forging Radical Alliances Across Difference: Coalition Politics for the New

Millennium. Jill M. Bystydzienski & Steven P. Schacht, eds. (Boulder:

Rowman & Littlefield, 2001).

 

Removal Reversed: Native/non-Native joint management of reclaimed lands,
on Kickapoo Valley, Sauk Prairie, and Crandon mine sites

in Wisconsin. PowerPoint at Association of American Geographers

(AAG) annual conference, New Orleans, 2003.

 

Native environmental justice and the Crandon mine (PowerPoint).

Lecture with Kenneth Fish (Menominee). Summer Institute on Environmental Justice

(U.W.-Madison) and Western Mining Activists Network conference (Albuquerque).

 

Wisconsin's Native/non-Native anti-mining alliance, with

Dr. Al Gedicks in Cultural Survival Quarterly, 2001.

 

"From Enemies to Allies: Native Americans and Whites Join Forces

in Wisconsin," with Debra McNutt, in ColorLines, 2001, and

in Multiracial Formations: New Instruments for Social Change.

 

Native and Environmental Movements," in Z magazine (Boston), 1995.

 

Chippewa treaty rights issues, 1989-91.