Alanna Kaiser ENGL 181A November 11, 2013 The Susquehanna River and the Evolution of the American

Dream On a cold blustery day in October, I found myself on the Susquehanna River, trying my hardest to navigate as I pulled rudder stroke after rudder stroke in the back of my canoe. Along the steel grey horizon I could see our destination: Little Indian Rock. Just below the Safe Harbor dam we paddled, our arms growing weary in the face of such harsh conditions. At points the river resembled an ocean. The invisible hand of the current forced us left, right, backwards, anywhere but forward, and the whitecaps on the water lapped menacingly over the sides of our boat. After notable toil, we finally parked our canoe broadside along the rock. We climbed up, and looked around. The amazing cultural location that had been promised was merely an unassuming bolder in the middle of the water. The ancient petroglyphs we were expecting seemed to be missing entirely. Enter Paul Nevin. From the corner of my eye, I saw this man climb deftly onto the rock. Despite the chill in the air, he was barefooted. Any introduction was unnecessary, because we already knew that he was the one that was going to unlock the secrets of Little Indian Rock. With the swipe of a damp sponge, Paul Nevin revealed numerous Native American figures that had been painstakingly chiseled into this rock, and a few others throughout the Susquehanna. The carvings were hundreds of years old, yet appeared fresh and clear as Paul delineated them from the rock face. One petroglyph in particular was extremely striking. This carving, an image of a life-size human footprint, points toward the mouth of the Conestoga River. It is a clear memorial to the Native Americans that once inhabited the area hundreds, and even thousands, of years ago. As

Kaiser 2 Paul Nevin put his bare foot directly in the print, it occurred to me just how influential the Susquehanna River had been in lives of people surrounding it. Since the time of the Native Americans, people have been depending on the river as a source of livelihood, in one way or another. In her novel, Susan Stranahan dubs the Susquehanna the River of Dreams. Admittedly over time this river has inspired many dreams. Throughout history, the Susquehanna River has been instrumental in helping to shape the dynamic American Dream as it evolved from that of the Native Americans, to the English Settlers, to finally the people of the Industrial Revolution and beyond. These individual American Dreams each manifest in different relationships with the river, and the specifics of each are very indicative of the cultures and values of each of the aforementioned groups of people. The Native Americans American Dream was one of prosperity at the hands of the earth. Rather than seeking economic prosperity, they sought a high quality of life that coincided with their ideals. They valued the natural world, and aimed to coexist with nature, rather than take advantage of it. Their four basic types of subsistence were hunting local game, gathering native fruits and nuts, fishing, and cultivating crops in the rich farmland surrounding the River (Wennersten 11). Each of these things they did with great respect for the natural resources each process required and in ways that were conducive to the perpetuation of the resources, rather than their immediate and total consumption. In their minds, the prey had as much right to the forest as the hunter (Wennersten 13). The Native Americans deeply connect their religion with the natural world, believing that a Great Creator provided any and all resources for them. Many things were thought to be great gifts specifically given to the Indians in the lower Susquehanna and Chesapeake regions to reward them for one thing or another. In Micheners Chesapeake, the Choptank Indians

Kaiser 3 proclaim, When Manitou, the Great Power, finished populating the river with everything our village required- pine trees for canoes, deer to feed us in the summer, geese and oysters for the winter- He saw that we were grateful and well disposed. So in His grace He created one thing more, to stand as a token of His eternal concern. He made the crab and hid them in our salty waters (Michener 25). Their reverence for the land was also exhibited in the prayer that the Choptank werowance offered to the Great Power when the geese began to leave. Watch over them he said, They are our need, our protection from hunger, our sentinels at night, our companions through the winter (Michener 28). The very use of the word companion in this passage illustrates the closeness and reverence that the Native Americans felt to the geese. Since they saw these birds, and every other element of their ecosystem as purposeful components added by God, they inevitably respected them, and took only what they needed to survive. In this way, their definition of prosperity differed greatly from the settlers that would inhabit the land in the years to come. Essentially, the American Dream of the Native Americans of the Susquehanna region centered completely around the river, and honoring all that it provided for them. An area as rich in resources as the Susquehanna was prime location for foreign colonization. In 1607, John Smith led his Virginia Company to form the settlement at Jamestown. They came in search of gold and other riches. This very mission of their voyage to the New World defined their respective American Dream. Essentially, the European colonists dream was to get rich and make the New World their own regardless of the cultural or environmental repercussions. Unlike the Indians, Europeans sought to own the land, a practice that ultimately lead to vast, often unintentional yet very serious, environmental degradation. They sowed it and foraged it in ways that were not sustainable. In fact, the agriculture practiced

Kaiser 4 by the Indians was the first step in the steep decline of the health of the Susquehanna River in terms of pollution and excess nutrients. Similarly, the first Europeans that arrived in the New World considered the boundless expanse of trees to be a hindrance to their desired lifestyle, so they began deforesting right away to take care of this problem. One British visitor at the time described this attitude as an unconquerable aversion to trees (Stranahan 78). Their values and ultimate goals were simply not conducive to conservation of the natural world. According to John Wennersten, Europeans did not understand the formative powers of nature, nor did they understand the interdependence of flora, fauna, and seascape. The Europeans would undertake an ecological revolution in the Chesapeake that had as its main thrust the extermination of wild animal life and the commodification of nature (13). This disconnect played a role in many conflicts with the Native Americans, as well as other colonies later in American History, and ultimately lead to complete European Control of the New World. Undeniably, the American Dream that was once rooted in reverence became one centered around consumption and capitalism. The original European Colonists greed-fueled agenda set the precedent for every settler that arrived after them. The mindset became that nature was something to be bought, sold, traded and developed (Wennersten 13). This thought process was especially obvious in the mid to late 1800s, when logging for money was especially in vogue. At this point, the American Dream evolved further. This time, the American Dream was not only founded in capitalist wishes, but in the development of modern cities and mass industry to facilitate those financially minded ideals. Advancing technologies catalyzed this process and made this dream possible. Similar to the dreams of the original European Colonists, people in the Age of Industry paid no attention to the very real effects that their actions were having on the greater ecosystem.

Kaiser 5 Susan Stranahans book, Susquehanna: River of Dreams focuses largely on the consequences of this development and industrialization of the riverside. She points out that at one time, 99.8 percent of Pennsylvanias 28,692,480 acres was covered with trees, but today only 57 percent of the states total area is comprised of forest (77). This is a direct result of the evolution of the dreams of the people along the river. The combination of ideal resource and transportation factors provided by the Susquehanna made it a perfect breeding ground for this type of industrial capitalist dream. White pines lined the river, and since they are a very versatile and useful type of wood, they were readily chopped down and sold. The river itself acted as a conveyer belt, transporting the trees from their original location to mills farther down the river, particularly in the West Branch (Stranahan 79). With this prosperous logging industry came growing cities along the river, including Harrisburg, Wrightsville, and Columbia. The development of these riverside communities compounded the negative effects that industries alone were causing by adding excess pollutants to the water. At this point, the American Dream inspired by the river stagnated in its period of capitalism and development until the environmental status of the Susquehanna was so dire that people were forced to reevaluate their relationship with the river, causing the dreams that it inspired to change once again. Close examination of all of the Susquehanna dreams, and the development of the American Dream in particular allows us to understand the dynamic relationships that people have had with the river and its surrounding environment over the course of hundreds of years, and how their cultures and values have affected these relationships. It also allows us to learn from the past, and to grow from our environmental failures. Today, the dreams of the Susquehanna are rooted in protecting it from threats of degradation by fracking and agricultural

Kaiser 6 and industrial pollution. In this way, you could say that we as a society are beginning to see the value in the Native American relationship with the river. This new ideal of conservation is being carried out largely in part by organizations like the Chesapeake Bay foundation. They are using hands-on educational experiences like the canoeing trips that weve taken part in as instruments to ensure that the Susquehanna American Dream of the future continues to evolve in a way that will protect and preserve the River for generations to come. As I, myself put my own bare foot in the same Native American petroglyph that Paul Nevin did only minutes before me on that cold October day, I was able to sense a deep connection with the past. I felt a strong link to the people who have been living off of the river since the time of the Native Americans, and gained a sense of how fundamental the river had been, and continues to be, to their way of life. In this moment, I understood why the Susquehanna was deemed the river of dreams.

Kaiser 7 Works Cited Michener, James A. Chesapeake. New York: Random House, 1978. Print. Stranahan, Susan. Susquehanna: River of Dreams. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 1993. Print. Wennersten, John. "The New World Environment of the Chesapeake Bay." Chesapeake: An Environmental Biography. Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 2001. 3-37. Print.