A Weekend Escape- Part 2 (The Mound Builders!)

So in any case, that's not the end of my adventures from this weekend. In between viewing the giant snow goose flock at Emiquon, trying to photograph ducks from a moving car, and chasing Eurasian Tree Sparrows, mom and I decided to stop by the Dickson Mounds Museum.

I must admit, I didn't really know much about Dickson Mounds prior to visiting. All I really knew beforehand was that it consisted of some old Native American burial grounds, which were built hundreds of years ago, forgotten, and later discovered by a man named Dickson.

In 1927, after purchasing a tract of land along the Illinois River, Dr. Don F. Dickson just so happened to stumble upon a series of burial mounds from an ancient Native American society. He soon began excavating, but instead of removing the bones and other artifacts from their graves, he left them intact, transforming the place into a private museum of sorts. Tourists, scholars, and archeologists came from all over the world to interpret Dickson's findings, and eventually, by 1945, Dickson sold his museum to the state of Illinois, which has maintained it ever since.

So, yeah... I kind of learned this from browsing the Dickson Mounds website, but one thing that I almost certainly had no prior knowledge of was the society that actually built the mounds.

When we picture Native Americans, we tend to think of them as nomadic hunter-gathers who lived in tribal communities, worshipped nature, occaisionally went to war with other tribes, and were eventually destroyed by the Europeans. And while we do acknowledge that the Native Americans were here "first", we rarely seem to take their 10,000-year history into account- from the crossing of the Bering Land Bridge up to the present day. While our textbooks may have entire chapters devoted to ancient Egyptian society, the sections describing Native American history seem consistently vague about the societies, languages, and religious beliefs that evolved during that enormous span of time. It's almost as if there's a giant, 10,000-year gap in history...but why?

I know for one thing that the North American Indians never really "built" much in comparison to other native societies, such as the Aztecs and Incas. There are no great big temples of stone in New Jersey, and certainly not in Nebraska, but there are these burial mounds in some parts of the midwest. Dickson Mounds is one of these places, and contrary to what I've always believed about Illinois history (that it hardly dates back further than the 1800's), native "mound-building peoples" had actually built thriving, sedentary societies as early as the 11th century- complete with temples, walled cities, population centers and trade-based economies!

According archaeologists at the museum, these Mississippian societies flourished during the first half of the millenia, but eventually fell into decline as they went to war with each other and contracted diseases. When Europeans colonized Illinois, most of the mound-builders had already evicted, and for the few that still remained, European conquest dealt the final blow.

I find it disappointing that we hardly spend any time learning about the ancient cultures of our region- and even worse how we rarely imagine them as little more than primitive, nature-worshipping teepee-dwellers. I glanced over my World History textbook from freshman year and noticed that the mound-builders are only mentioned in a single paragraph. I mean- really, what's the deal? Why don't we learn more about them?

In a sense, it all boils down to New Historicism- the idea that all writing is a product of its time. The Europeans who encountered native societies in all their intact glory found them inferior. When they initially encountered the remnants of mound-building societies, they actually refused to believe that the mounds were built by Native Americans. They didn't believe that such primitive, inferior people were "capable" of building these things. And since the Europeans were the ones who eventually wiped out the native populations, their writings- which offer us a glimpse into intact native societies- were probably biased to the point of being innaccurate.

A Weekend Escape- Part 1

This weekend, my mom and I took a short vacation to Fulton County, Illinois- mostly in search of our favorite birds: Ducks. With the ice melting, rivers swelling, and fields beginning to flood, the waterfowl -which have spent most of the winter in ice-free zones- are now heading north. Nowhere is their migration more evident than along Illinois' major rivers, where these ducks stop to rest and refuel before continuing their journey.

At Emiquon National Wildlife Refuge, a shallow, 2,000 acre lake formed at the junction of the Illinois and Spoon Rivers, snow geese often gather in the tens of thousands, accompanied by pelicans, bald eagles, and thousands of other ducks and waterbirds. Interestingly enough, this wildlife magnet hardly existed before the Nature Conservancy purchased it in the year 2000 (none of my old bird books on Illinois mention it). Although the area had historically been a giant wetland, years of intensive farming operations had all but drained the surrounding marshes and confined the the Illinois River to manmade channels. Only in recent years, when the Nature Conservancy removed the drain tiles, planted native flora, and restored the river to its original course, did the wildlife start to come back.

In one nearby Fish and Wildlife Area known as Banner Marsh (a place I would have liked to stop at, but didn't have time), the 4,363 acre property was initially a strip mining operation. This just goes to show you how quickly nature can heal.

Oh, and one more thing. LOOK AT THIS VIDEO. This was Emiquon 2 weeks before I went. HOLY SHIT.

The Last of the Bluefin Tuna

It’s been several hours since my last meal, and for some reason, I’m craving a big, juicy, tender filet of fish— preferably halibut or whitefish. Maybe trout? Mahi-mahi? No wait, I got it- A tuna burger! Mmmmmm so delicious.

It disturbs me that I think about these kinds of thing when I should be writing about the depletion of fish stocks, destruction of aquatic ecosystems, and ruthless, unregulated nature of our fishing industry. It certainly proves how strong our hunger instincts are. Sometimes I wonder: If I was stranded on an island with the last breeding pair of dodos, there was no help in sight, and there was nothing else to eat, would I have the will to refrain from eating them?

Anyways, that’s not my point. What I mean to say is that fish are in trouble. Now this is not true for every species, but for large predatory fish like tuna, grouper, and sharks, the situation is dire. Big fish are disappearing at a rate faster than anyone could have imagined. Bluefin Tuna- which are prized on the Japanese sushi market- have declined more than 90% since the 70’s, and are now listed as “critically endangered” by IUCN Red List. It’s really a shame too, because these are such majestic fish. A full-grown adult -bulging with muscle and power- can measure up to 10 feet, weigh more than 300 pounds, and reach speeds up to 50 mph. To think that such magnificent creatures would be slaughtered en masse and reduced to cat food seems pretty revolting to me.

Yet despite warnings of overfishing, Japan and a number of other countries continue to deplete fish populations- from the majestic tuna to rather gross-looking Patagonian Toothfish. With improved, industrial-scale fishing operations, virtually nothing is safe from exploitation. Even the deepest, blackest recesses of the ocean are fished to the extreme. Trawling nets are indiscriminately dragged across the seabed, killing all sorts of untargeted creatures as well as destroying seafloor ecosystems.

Some deep-sea fish like the Orange Roughy (a long-lived member of the Slimehead family) are already starting to suffer from this type of trawling, since they tend to be VERRRRYYYY slow to reproduce. Young roughies take 20-40 years to mature, and if you’ve ever had orange roughy, chances are good that you’re eating a 50-year old fish.

Although many countries now enact quotas on the allowable catch within their waters, a vast majority of fisheries are poorly regulated. With oceans spanning the globe, poaching is easy, and many countries (Japan in particular) tend to ignore limits imposed on fishing.

Although people nowadays may have higher eco-awareness, international cooperation may be better, and people may be finally waking up to the effects of overfishing, a tragedy of the commons seems to be playing itself out. According to a 2009 prediction, Bluefin Tuna may go extinct within 3 years. Unless people act now, we’ll simply deplete the large fish, move onto smaller ones, and repeat the cycle until there’s nothing left but plankton.
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Not sure which kind of seafood is sustainable? Check out the Monterrey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch Program. You’d be surprised by what’s on the red list.