Waiting for the Wabanaki

This morning my son, who sadly is knee-deep in such things as this, alerted me to something I find to be quite disturbing, very alarming, and a huge crock of bullshit. It's called the Landback Movement. It supposedly has a long legacy (even though I never heard of it before today) of "organizing and sacrifice to get indigenous lands back into indigenous hands."

My husband and I moved to Maine 13 years ago this month. We bought a house on three acres of land, or maybe it's two -- I'm not sure since most of it is covered with woods and giant boulders, so it's not like we're actually using the entire property. 

We purchased the house from a couple named Mr. and Mrs. Tate and hired an agent of Keller-Williams Realty to facilitate the deal. Not once did anyone say we were colonizers! Nevertheless I learned just today that we suck because we have usurped land that once belonged to the Wabanaki Indians, or people like them. (There is some dispute as to which particular tribe actually owned our neighborhood.) 

According to the Landback people, the right thing to do is to return our land back and go back to whence we came. All I can say about this is "Fat chance!" We moved here from Washington, D.C. but I think they mean we should go back to our ancestral home, which for Mitch and me would be Poland and Russia. 

Seriously, I am not going to Poland or Russia at this time -- can you blame me? And honestly, you couldn't pay me to spend even an afternoon in D.C. these days. So I guess if any of those Wabanakis want my land they'll have to come and get it. I'll be in my studio, painting.