Pilgrimage II, Day 2 - The Great Corridor
The region between
the Arkansas, Platte and Mississippi Rivers served as a broad corridor
stretching from the Rockies in the northwest to the Mississippi River valley in
the southeast. Across this corridor the herds of bison moved along with peoples
for whom the bison were sacred. The Arapahos and Cheyenne called this region
home.
As we drove across
this region today headed east from Cheyenne headed toward the Agate Fossil Bed
Site in northwest Nebraska, I was taken by how beautiful the rolling hills
were. I kept trying to imagine this place teeming with bison and dotted with
camps full of tipis. I could see why these indigenous peoples loved this place,
a land to which they and the bison belonged, not vice versa.
I can only imagine
how violated they felt as European descendants began to stream across this
corridor, many headed further west, slaughtering first the bison and then the
peoples they were not able to remove from this land they claimed for their own.
The story of noble white settlers courageously migrating westward in their
Conestoga wagons, fighting off hostile Indians who attacked them, is what most
of us learned in American history. But it is at best only half of the story,
inevitably offered completely out of context. The rest of that story is, in the
end, heartbreaking.
Pilgrimage II, Day 2 - A Rich History
The Agate Fossil Beds near today’s Harrison, Nebraska, is
rich repository of the remains of Miocene animals dating up to 20 million years
ago. Discovered by one of the original European descendants to settle here,
James Cook, he quickly called in a paleontologist from the University of
Nebraska to observe what he thought were petrified horses.
The paleontologists recognized there was a wide range of
prehistoric mammals here and enlisted help from the Carnegie Museum, the
American Museum of Natural History and Yale University. Their work uncovered
remains of evolutionary precursors of rhinoceros, horse and camelids.
The museum today provides an excellent display of the
fossils, some reassembled into original form. These creatures lived after the
dinosaurs but appear to have died fairly suddenly, perhaps from drought,
perhaps, like Pompeii, from a wave of volcanic dust which buried them.
I was grateful for the opportunity to learn about this.
Pilgrimage II, Day 2 - When The Humanity of the Other Is Recognized
Captain James Henry
Cook left his military career behind to come live at the Agate Springs Ranch in
1887, just 14 years after Custer’s Last Stand. Cook saw the remaining
indigenous peoples as friends, inviting them to the ranch for meals and long
sessions of exchanging stories and smoking the peace pipe. Cook’s indigenous
guests showered him with gifts from beaded moccasins to saddles, many of which
now appear in the museum at Agate Fossil Beds Visitor Center.
This is an example
of what happens when those we see as the Other are welcomed, who share their
culture, their wisdom, their lives with one another. The result here was a rich
cultural exchange from which all its participants benefitted. It stands in such
stark contrast to the use of force to remove peoples from their lands, often by
use of violence and atrocity. The bottom line here is the recognition of one’s
shared humanity.
What might we learn
from this example?
Pilgrimage II, Day 2 - Guideposts, Gathering Places
Along the North
Platte River, visitors encounter a number of striking natural landmarks.
Scott’s Bluff, Nebraska, is a rugged series of bluffs, stone that withstood the
erosive power of the nearby rivers over the millennia. A few miles to the
south, a solitary stone tower named Chimney Rock can be seen. It was here
indigenous peoples gathered over the centuries and later settlers following the
overland trails to Oregon, California and the Mormon Territory would find their
way.
These natural
wonders draw us to them, amaze us, inspire us. They evidence natural processes
that occurred over millions of years, reminding us that humanity’s recent
arrival on this planet is but a drop in the bucket of time. On a good day, such
realization might produce a humility not often displayed by a species that so
often sees itself as the crown of creation.
[Images - photos by author, painting on display at Scott’s Bluff
Museum by Tom Doroney]
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Harry Scott Coverston
Orlando, Florida
If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely
an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth
holding. Most things worth considering do not come in sound bites.
Those who believe religion and politics aren't connected
don't understand either. – Mahatma Gandhi
For what does G-d require of you but to do justice, and
to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your G-d? - Micah
6:8, Hebrew Scriptures
Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief.
Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly now. You are not obligated to
complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it. - Rabbi Rami
Shapiro, Wisdom of the Jewish Sages (1993)
© Harry Coverston, 2025
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