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.
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