This week I spent time reading an interview with James C. McCoy. About twenty pages into the transcription of the interview, McCoy begins discussing how urbanization had negatively affected the Native American population in this area. He said “In my opinion, no one else in the United States has suffered more than our Indian citizens.” Currently, I am enrolled in a course entitled “(Re)Learning the Love of the Land” with Professor Joe Parker at Pitzer College.
In many of our classes we spend time learning from and listening to indigenous activists/cultural liaisons/people/educators from the Tongva indigenous group. Reading the transcription of McCoy’s interview made me realize that he was talking about the violence inflicted upon indigenous people here in the Inland Empire, something I have spent a lot of time thinking about this semester. As I am enrolled in the course at Pitzer and continue my work with the Upland Public Library San Antonio Water Company documents, I am noticing the overlap.
The course focuses on resistance to the continued colonialism in this region and the interviews I have been processing help me trace the history of how the area was colonized. This week, in a reading for my class, the author discussed how water has been colonized throughout the United States via dams, aqueducts, and irrigation. I have realized how many of these interviews recount that process. These interviews have helped me think more deeply about my studies, and I hope they help others understand what has happened in the Inland Empire.