{"id":17629,"date":"2019-08-20T01:07:10","date_gmt":"2019-08-20T01:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=17629"},"modified":"2019-08-21T09:21:40","modified_gmt":"2019-08-21T09:21:40","slug":"the-misguided-attacks-on-this-land-is-your-land","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/the-misguided-attacks-on-this-land-is-your-land\/","title":{"rendered":"The misguided attacks on ‘This Land Is Your Land’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Will Kaufman<\/a>, University of Central Lancashire<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

In recent years, Woody Guthrie\u2019s \u201cThis Land Is Your Land<\/a>\u201d has become a rallying cry for immigrants<\/a>. And in July, after President Donald Trump tweeted that four Democratic congresswomen of color needed to \u201cgo back where they came from,\u201d Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the four targeted, responded with a tweet quoting Guthrie\u2019s lyrics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

But not everyone sees the song as an anthem for inclusion.<\/p>\n

In June, the Smithsonian\u2019s online magazine, Folklife, published a piece<\/a> that lambasted the song for its omissions.<\/p>\n

The article, titled \u201cThis Land Is Whose Land?<\/a>,\u201d was written by folk musician Mali Obomsawin, a member of the Native American Abenaki tribe. She wrote of being shaken up \u201clike a soda can\u201d every time she heard the song\u2019s lyrics:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the context of America, a nation-state built by settler colonialism, Woody Guthrie\u2019s protest anthem exemplifies the particular blind spot that Americans have in regard to Natives: American patriotism erases us, even if it comes in the form of a leftist protest song. Why? Because this land \u2018was\u2019 our land. Through genocide, broken treaties and a legal system created by and for the colonial interest, this land \u2018became\u2019 American land.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Obomsawin\u2019s article immediately generated a flurry of responses from conservative media outlets.<\/p>\n

\u201cCommie Folksinger Woody Guthrie Not Woke Enough for Mob<\/a>,\u201d jeered Breitbart\u2019s John Nolte, delighted with this evidence of internecine strife among what he dubbed the \u201cfascist woketards\u201d of the American left. The Daily Wire\u2019s Emily Zanotti soon joined the fray, penning a piece under the headline \u201cThis Land Is NOT Your Land: Woke Culture Now Demanding Woody Guthrie Be Canceled Over Folk Music Faux Pas<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Obomsawin and her conservative critics might be surprised to learn that some of Guthrie\u2019s greatest champions have also had difficulties with the song.<\/p>\n

As the author of three books on Guthrie<\/a>, I sometimes wonder how the folksinger would respond to the criticism of \u201cThis Land Is Your Land\u201d for its omissions.<\/p>\n

While we can\u2019t know for sure, a glance at some of his unpublished writings and recently discovered recordings can offer some clues.<\/p>\n

Seeger sings a different tune<\/h2>\n

Pete Seeger<\/a>, Woody\u2019s colleague and prot\u00e9g\u00e9, was perhaps the most responsible for lodging \u201cThis Land Is Your Land\u201d in the public consciousness. After Guthrie died in 1967, Seeger continued to perform the song all around the world.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Seeger made it clear that he was sensitive to the theft of Native American lands.<\/p>\n

In his memoir, \u201cWhere Have All the Flowers Gone<\/a>,\u201d Seeger recalled an incident during a 1968 performance:<\/p>\n

\u201cJimmy Collier, a great young black singer from the Midwest, was asked to lead [\u2018This Land Is Your Land.\u2019] Henry Crowdog [sic] of the Sioux Indian delegation came up and punched his finger in Jimmy\u2019s chest. \u2018Hey, you\u2019re both wrong. It belongs to me.\u2019 Jimmy stopped and added seriously, \u2018Should we not sing this song?\u2019 Then a big grin came over Henry Crowdog\u2019s face. ‘No, it\u2019s okay. Go ahead and sing it. As long as we are all down here together to get something done.\u2019\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"
When performing, Pete Seeger occasionally tweaked the lyrics to \u2018This Land Is Your Land.\u2019<\/span>
\nJosef SCHWARZ\/Wikimedia Commons<\/a>, CC BY-SA<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sometimes, in an attempt to ease his conscience when performing \u201cThis Land,\u201d Seeger would add a verse penned by the singer and activist Carolyn \u201cCappy\u201d Israel<\/a> to acknowledge the theft of Native land:<\/p>\n

    This land is your land, but it once was my land\r\n    Before we sold you Manhattan Island\r\n    You pushed my nation to the reservation,\r\n    This land was stole by you from me.\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
Woody wasn\u2019t oblivious<\/h2>\n
Was Guthrie himself uncomfortable with the song\u2019s glaring failure to acknowledge the facts of settler colonialism?<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no record of his views on the issue. But we do know that he was very aware of \u2013 and concerned with \u2013 the history of Native American dispossession.<\/p>\n
For example, he was angry enough with his cousin, the country singer \u201cOklahoma Jack\u201d Guthrie<\/a>, for claiming credit for a song that Woody had written, titled \u201cOklahoma Hills.\u201d But as Woody wrote in an unpublished annotation to the lyrics, Jack had also left out \u201cthe best parts of the whole song\u201d \u2013 the names of \u201cthe Chickasaw, Choctaw, Cherokee, Creek and Seminole\u201d who had prior claim to the lands of Oklahoma.<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s a soundbite in a posthumously discovered live recording from 1949<\/a>:<\/p>\n
\u201cThey used dope, they used opium, they used every kind of a trick to get these Indians to sign over their lands,\u201d Guthrie says to the crowd.<\/p>\n
One of these real estate tricksters was actually Woody\u2019s own father, Charley Guthrie. As biographer and journalist Joe Klein writes in \u201cWoody Guthrie: A Life<\/a>,\u201d \u201cBecause he was able to speak both Creek and Cherokee, Charley became known as especially adept at relieving Indians of their property.\u201d<\/p>\n
How did Charley learn these Native tongues? Was it possible that the Guthries had Native ancestors?<\/p>\n
In a tantalizingly vague 1950 letter to activist Stetson Kennedy<\/a>, Woody notes \u201cthe rainbow blends\u201d of his own bloodline, including \u201cpure virgin island negro\u201d and unnamed \u201cIndian tribelines.\u201d<\/p>\n
And in an unpublished poem entitled \u201cSweety Black Girl,\u201d written the same year, Guthrie writes:<\/p>\n
    my \r\n    blood beats Spanish and my breath burns Indian and my\r\n    soul boils negro. \r\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
Guthrie admitted that he was ashamed of his father\u2019s disreputable real estate practices. And while he may have idealized his own genealogy, there\u2019s no doubt that he was fully aware of \u201cwhose land was whose.\u201d<\/p>\n
Native Americans see Guthrie as an ally<\/h2>\n
Interestingly, not all Native Americans view the song in the same light as Obomsawin.<\/p>\n
The song has proved adaptable and malleable enough to enable some Native American artists to work with it.<\/p>\n
In 2007, the Anishinaabe songwriter and musician Keith Secola<\/a> sang his Ojibwa-language version of \u201cThis Land\u201d on the album \u201cNative Americana \u2014 A Coup Stick.\u201d<\/p>\n
Secola said in an interview<\/a> that his version \u201creflects a worldview, of being a part of the world and not detached from it. Woody was into people creating their own stories. \u2026 That\u2019s what I got from him \u2013 how to apply this strategy, this procedure of songwriting, to the topics that affect American Indians.\u201d<\/p>\n
A few years before Secola\u2019s cover, two of Guthrie\u2019s previously unpublished songs \u2013 \u201cIndian Corn Song\u201d and \u201cMean Things Happenin\u2019 in This World\u201d \u2013 were recorded<\/a> by the Navajo siblings, Klee, Clayson and Jeneda Benally.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to keep the spirit of Woody Guthrie alive,\u201d Clayton said in a 2012 interview<\/a>. \u201cHe wrote songs about the Dust Bowl and unions, but he also wrote about American Indian issues.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clayson noted that \u201cIndian Corn Song\u201d was one of his favorite songs to play, because in it Guthrie \u201ctalks about wastefulness and how Indigenous people are \u2026 living off the planet in a balanced way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mali Obomsawin might take heart from Secola, the Benally siblings and the other<\/a> artist-activists<\/a> who have adopted and adapted \u201cThis Land Is Your Land.\u201d<\/p>\n
Woody Guthrie might not have been perfect, they say, but we don\u2019t need to \u201ccancel\u201d him.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll work with him instead.<\/p>\n
\n
\u201cSweety Black Girl\u201d and unpublished Woody Guthrie correspondence and annotations, words by Woody Guthrie \u00a9 Copyright Woody Guthrie Publications, Inc., all rights reserved, used by permission.<\/em><\/p>\n
[ Like what you\u2019ve read? Want more?<\/em> Sign up for The Conversation\u2019s daily newsletter<\/a>. ]\"The<\/p>\n
Will Kaufman<\/a>, Professor of American Literature and Culture, University of Central Lancashire<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n
This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Will Kaufman, University of Central Lancashire In recent years, Woody Guthrie\u2019s \u201cThis Land Is Your Land\u201d has become a rallying cry for immigrants. And in July, after President Donald Trump tweeted that four Democratic congresswomen of color needed to \u201cgo back where they came from,\u201d Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the four targeted, responded with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":17628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[293],"tags":[6383,479,3137,53,1573,4405,1586,6822],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17629"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17629"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17639,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17629\/revisions\/17639"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}