As the timeline of my second vision draws to a close, I wouldn’t be surprised if the final chapter isn’t just around the corner. The “emergence of the police state” and all that entails, for better or worse, including restrictions on interstate travel, would have no precedent in American history. Unfortunately, if that were to happen the effect would have a much greater impact than many might realize. Practical considerations aside, America as a nation developed in relationship to open-space; room for everybody and the freedom to roam, whenever and wherever you wanted. And while considered its progenitors, those early pioneers would find the westward reaches of this vast country already occupied by the time they got there. Yet, the conundrum westward expansion presented was more than happenstance, as it was linked to a spirit of self-sufficiency and independence, as well as the Jeffersonian vision of agricultural development and independence from government intrusion. Yet, that ethos extended well back into the prehistory of North America, when the ancient civilizations of the New World had been part of a vast, interconnected trading empire, which stretched from Canada all the way down to Panama.
This ancient panorama, which was already in decline by the time of the first European contact, was subsequently given new life with the arrival of Spanish explorers and their horses. The opportunity presented was not lost on the Native people occupying The Great Plains, as the land and its open-space had formed them. Knowing a good thing when they saw it, the greater mobility a horse provided was seen as providential. Accordingly the wasted little time in availing themselves of Spanish negligence when it came to their remuda’s. Mounted warriors now and independent to a degree that few peoples in history have ever known, they embarked on a cycle of conquest, territorial consolidation and cultural adaption. Yet, both early European explorers and the colonial American pioneers which followed were motivated by a much different driver; not commerce per se, but greed. Which, as universally part of their essential nature, put them at odds with Indigenous people they met, whose motivations were completely alien to the ken of the conqueror.
People came, from here, there and everywhere, first with their wagons, and later, with their cars. Ancient tracks became established trails, which turned into railways and then roads. Consider then, if all these right-of-ways we’ve grown accustomed to were suddenly devoid of traffic, it wouldn’t take long for the weeds to sprout. And, while the phrase, noxious weeds, was once used to describe American Indians, viable seed from the Indigenous past might prove more illustrative of a certain transition. As having lain dormant for centuries, it wouldn’t take long for that seed to sprout and break through every crack in the pavement. In time, another people might emerge, from the ground up; a people who would find a way to “…make the road by walking,” (Klein 2019). .
