High Plains Drifter, somewhere in Western Kansas

Yah Teeh everyone,

I'm writing you from the only Starbucks within at least 200 miles.  And it's not that busy, that's how remote the region is.  After my last update I had an unexpected Lummis "moment" in Lawrence that kept me there another night.  The small, newly opened Indian School two miles south of town that Lummis visited in 1884 is not only still around, it is today one of the largest tribal colleges in the country.  I couldn’t suppress a big grin as the GPS closed me in on Haskell University, still at the end of historic Massachusetts Ave.

I had to drive around the small campus for a while to find a parking spot to accommodate my car and trailer.  Once parked in my remote location, I eagerly popped out of the car, camera in hand.  I wasn’t sure what the game plan was to experience Haskell.  I think at first I was looking for an administration office.  The first place I found was a small snack bar located in a student union-type area on the bottom floor of a building.  I was hungry so I ordered a turkey wrap (I was tempted to get the buffalo burger, but I thought it would be tacky).

As I noshed on my tasty wrap I cast furtive glances at the people around me.  Everyone looked like college students you might find on any campus in the US.  Except everyone here is a member of a federally recognized tribe, a requirement for admission to Haskell.

I was dying to know more about student life at Haskell, so when I was buying a Haskell t-shirt I struck up a conversation with the clerk at the student union.  She eventually suffered the misfortune of getting my Lummis Re-Tramp speech, but I was gratified when she said, as I busted out the map, "Yo, that's coolest thing I've ever heard," (she had a little hip-hop style going).  She ended up directing me to the cultural center on campus.

The cultural center was extremely illuminating.  I got a personal tour from curator Bobbi Rahder giving me the history from those original three buildings there when it opened in 1884 (the same year Lummis toured it) to the present.  The school has evolved as US Indian policy and America's tribes have evolved.  What started as a small three building boarding school teaching students agricultural and industrial skills has become a college offering two 4-year degree programs as well as a host of Associates degree level programs.  One of the things that makes Haskell University unique as a tribal college is that it serves students from all different tribes across America.

One interesting happenstance that helped make this a "moment" and connect me to the Lummis Tramp, is that the cultural center actually has a booklet available for visitors with the names of the original pupils of the Indian school.  Lummis in his account makes fun of how the students are given names at the school, which is a "gratuitous" Christian name, followed by an English translation of their father's Indian name, producing names like "Fred Eagle".  His favorite name, he says, is "Moses Bears Ears".  So I thought I'd have a look at this booklet for Moses, and sure enough, I found a Moses Bears Ears, arrived at the school August 30th, 1884, from the Ponca tribe, which had been relocated to the Indian Territory in present day Oklahoma.

It's important to note that today those early days when Lummis visited the school are known as the "Survival" era of the school.  This was when US policy was to keep pupils separated from their families, not allowing them to visit home.  This was also a time in the history of the school when conditions were hard, deaths not uncommon, and students had to look out to for each other.

This is a great example of how Lummis evolved as a person on the Tramp.  In Lawrence he kind of takes a passing interest in the school and expresses his admiration for the new school and optimism that it will help alleviate the, "vexing Indian Question".  On the tramp he will become a passionate admirer of Native culture, and later in life distinguish himself as an ardent and opinionated crusader for better Indian policy.  In fact, one of his notable achievements was getting children released to their parents from the Albuquerque Indian school.

The woman at the cultural center talked me into attending a lecture scheduled for that night.  The lecture was being presented by a distinguished student on "Mindfulness" and was scheduled to last the long duration of 6-10pm.  More on this another time.

Are we West yet?
Western Kansas has a reputation that proceeds it: flat, dull, ultra-rural.  I wondered where I was heading, it sounded a little bit like Tatooine, the desert planet in Star Wars.  Lawrence Kansas in the east is not like this, being hilly and wooded, similar to Missouri.  When does it change?  This is what I was thinking as I hit I-70 in the morning to put some serious miles behind me.

A quick word on the route at this point.  Some folks at the Free State Brewery on Mass. Ave in Lawrence had suggested I not take the Interstate because those are bad for experiencing the state, and suggested an alternate, parallel highway.  I agreed and resolved to do this until I looked at a map and realized that every single city Lummis mentions in Kansas (Abilene, Hays, Ellis, etc.) is along today's I-70.  Definitely proof that this modern Interstate shadows the old railroad line in this part of the country.  In fact, I think I found tracks that are indisputably ones trod by Lummis, right next to the Kaw river just like he says.  I found this on kind of a cool excursion off the highway, more on this later.

In Lummis's letters, Kansas is kind of where the country becomes the West.  Here he meets for the first time unadulterated, "all wool", hardcore cowboys.  Kansas, though extremely flat and dull, is still where the scenery starts to become a little more exotic.  He sees cacti for the first time, rattle snakes, prairie dog towns, and antelope (in fact, spends hours crawling on his stomach on his first antelope hunt).

Where I am now, I haven't quite gotten to these things yet.  Although one noticeable thing in the wildlife department are these fairly large hawks with white breasts and black heads that you see with so much regularity along the highway that they almost seems like mileposts as they perch on fences and poles on the side of the road.

About 20 miles West of Topeka, the mild woodedness of Lawrence becomes sparse woodedness, although it remains a little hilly for quite a while.  There are ups and down, but overall you seems to be descending from a high plain, and here in Colby Kansas the so far ubiquitous snow is all but gone.  Now I'm pretty much in pancake flat plains.  Although I wouldn't say it's flatter than Illinois yet, which Lummis reports (in fact, he begins a letter by apologizing to Illinois for casting any aspersions on the state for its flatness, after seeing Kansas).

I got to going, I want to make Boulder CO before night.  My main mission today is to see if First View, Colorado is a "fraud" or not.  Lummis says, "They showed me a little white cloud which they said was Pike's Peak, 150 miles away.  If it was, then Pike's Peak is portable, for I saw that cloud float a mile."  By the way, Yah Teeh is "Hello" in the Navajo language, something I learned at the lecture on Wednesday.

Adios,
SHU