For the last couple of years I have been working on a manuscript centered initially on the movements of my family starting in the seventeenth century. This was not merely an exercise. I wanted to show how members of my family were involved in the expropriation of land occupied by various Indigenous Americans in furtherance of the global imperial ambitions of Europeans. This land expropriation and virtual extermination of many thousands of Indians was a critical part of the development of today’s “culture” of control of the world by whites for the creation of capital. At present, the manuscript exceeds 400 pages. In this and the following blog posts I intend to present the essence of the manuscript in abbreviated form.
Members of my paternal family were so-called “pioneers” in the creation of the United States and Canada. Regrettably, this means that they were participants in the seizure of North America from the peoples who were there when the whites first arrived. Whether they were aware of their participation is a matter of conjecture. This movement across the continent serves as a vehicle for expatiation of a much broader subject, viz. the fate of the earth, and of all the creatures living there. I use a mythical metaphorical character originating from various Indian sources, known variously as the Windigo, Wetiko, and other names. I know this sounds impossibly ambitious, but I will try to explain my position more fully in posts still to come.
The first of my ancestors to come to the “New World” arrived in Rocksbury (now Roxbury) as a charter member of The Massachusetts Bay Company in 1630. He was part of the invasion of the continent by European whites. It was in fact an invasion, one part of an imperialist endeavor, mostly by French, Spanish, and especially British interests. Most whites of today will count this immigration to what is now called New England as a good thing. I’ll take a look at this idea in the next post.
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