Some notes on Tributary @ La Esquina, May 12th-June 10th, 2017, from the Chief Hydrologist.
Trace a river to its headwaters and you will swim
through any number of aphorisms. The
clearest of which might be, river is as
river does. Same might be said of artists. And scientists. From a managerial perspective, each can
appear uncontrollable; yet boundless inquiry and unfettered meandering are not
without purpose. Rivers mark time but
also create it. They erode physical and mental obstructions. They challenge extant
notions and forge new paths. Same might be said of artists. And scientists.
Despite legislature dating back nearly two centuries
to ‘improve’ the nearly 4000 kilometers of the Missouri River, the longest
river in the USA, the groups charged with enacting said changes can’t agree as
to what this means. A river master plan
requires us to create false notions about the nature of a stream, i.e., human
existence stands outside the river rather than being integral to its flow. Such hubris allows us to minimize floodplain
connectivity, disregard centuries of community history, and undermine the concept
of water as giver. This neglect is done in favor of bullet points from an agency
founded on building forts. Such thinking has shortened the river by 320 km and
eliminated 12,000 km2 of riparian corridor habitat. Your taxes paid
for the disappearance.
Thirty American Indian tribes reside in the Missouri
River Basin. Many of those nation’s sovereign views are at odds with the notion
that it takes an act of Congress to establish the river’s purpose. They
(Congress) decided on six: flood control, navigation, power, recreation, and water
supply. Attorneys and environmentalists later convinced them they meant to
include fish and wildlife and water quality. Taste-makers constantly review the
list but currently (2017) we are stuck on eight. Note that metaphor is not
considered an authorized purpose. Unless one happens to be an artist. Or a
scientist. River is as metaphor does.
Countless tributaries drain into the Mighty Missouri
and endless stories arise from it.
Here’s one you might want to finish. Begin with, how did we get here?
What was formerly a river is now called a System. A system with benefits. From
such great minds the concept of a river protected by a Master (manual) was
born. Should we be surprised that the manual has been protected by an army and
the troops (the Corps of Engineers) reside in castles? The scaffolding surrounding
such thinking has been buttressed by concrete, revetments, and Congressional
acts. Only massive floods can disrupt such malfeasance but truth told, such
events more often serve to deepen manifest destiny conspiracies. Your kingdom
in exchange for a piping plover, interior least tern, or pallid sturgeon.
The first bridge to span the largest tributary to the
Missouri River (the Mississippi) was designed by James B. Eads, a former
salvage-man, who walked not on water but on the river bottom. The knowledge
gained from such intimate interaction with the rich sediment load produced a steel
arch bridge like none before. This
project helped Eads restore his reputation and finances. His astute
understanding of stream sediment dynamics was eventually turned into a new,
national philosophy of environmental control: streams make money the
old-fashioned way, they earn it.
Today it is not uncommon for decision makers to stand
at podiums and surf terms like expected
outcomes, effects analysis, and preferred alternatives above the
audience. Language so invasive that it sometimes burdens the campfires of
recreationalists who prefer to swim in the river rather than profit from it.
There is always fortune to be found on a river.
As well as a supply of misfortune.
But understanding each is, like the difference between praying for rain
and surviving a flood, often a matter of perspective.
It can take days, weeks, even months for a drop of
water to filter down through tributaries to the main stem of the Missouri River.
However, once that water reaches the channelized, lower section it will
typically reach the river’s mouth within 10 days. This means a variety of
physical and chemical pollutants travel largely unabated to St. Louis. At St.
Louis, the Missouri River comingles with waters draining the eastern half of
the US and onward all will flow down the Mississippi. In another couple of
weeks those waters, along with their burdens, will swim in the Gulf of Mexico.
The works collected for Tributary ask you to change your
perspective on the Missouri River and its tributaries. Some works catalogue streams
but wrap it anew, be it in a shroud of media, consumer goods, or waste
products. Others produce experiences that link human actions to environmental
consequences. Some works provide a lens through which to see through the mud,
the vagaries, or the endless change. Together these works imagine a future for
the river without disregard for the resource.
Rivers can confound us but the recent past doesn’t have to predict the
future. It’s not a clever idea to test the depth of a stream with both feet. Instead,
baptize your heart and soul in the murkiness and surrender to the undulations
of wind, waves, and current. Swim in Tributary
then take a river bath and stand naked of fear.
References.
Big
Dam Era, 1993. John R. Ferrell, Missouri River Division, U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers, Omaha, NE.
Dammed
Indians Revisited: The Continuing History of the
Pick-Sloan Plan and the Missouri River Sioux, 2009. Lawson, Michael L., South
Dakota State Historical Society Press, Pierre, SD.
Draft
Missouri River Recovery Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement, December
2016. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 6
volumes, variously paged.
Flood
Control Act of 1944, An act authorizing the construction of certain public
works on rivers and harbors for flood control, and for other purposes.
Act of 22 December 1944, ch.665, 58 Stat. 887.
Missouri
River, 1935. Letter from the Secretary of War transmitting
report from the Chief of Engineers on Missouri River and tributaries, covering
navigation, flood control, power development and irrigation, House Document
238, 73rd Congress, 2nd session, US Govt Printing Office.
The
Great Flood, 2014 (Icarus Films release date). Film
by Bill Morrison, music by Bill Frisell, performed live at the Nelson Atkins
Museum, April 2017.
The
Great Flood of 1903: Being
A Graphic Story of How Two Mad Rivers, the Missouri and the Kaw, Deluged Kansas
City and Its Suburbs, 1903. Hill, W.R., Enterprise Publishing, Kansas City,
MO.
The
People of the River's Mouth: in Search of the Missouria Indians,
2011. Dickey, Michael, Univ. of Missouri Press, Columbia, MO.
We
Remember Rivers: An Oral History survey of the River Valleys in the Harry S.
Truman Dam and Reservoir Project, Missouri, 1980. Sprunk,
Larry, J., Historical and Archaeological Surveys, Garrison,
ND.
What
the River Carries: Encounters with the Mississippi, Missouri, and Platte,
2012. Lisa Knopp, Univ. of Missouri Press, Columbia, MO.
Wild
River, 1960, directed by Elia Kazan. 20th Century Fox.