Land Liberation Project
Tipi Village, Southern Oregon, Aug 23, 2014
Over the past few weeks One Planet Trust has made a number of visits to Tipi Village that is referred to in Charles Eisenstein’s blog, The Birds are Sad. During which we have come to increasingly understand the situational opportunity unfolding there as a whole. We are excited and very pleased to report something of a perfect storm in regards to our Trust’s long-term goals.
These young families of six and another of four (and others coming in) are to be evicted on Sept 1st (one week). They are devoted tipi dwellers and community builders who have Summered there for over six years with two of their children born there. Wonderful intact families in all respects. Wild-tending the saskatoon berries and the savannah grasses. Fetching wood, carrying water. They are successfully connecting to nature through a revived indigenous sensibility that is revealing a future that so many of us know must somehow come into being for much of humanity, and sooner more so than later. I could rant about how important this is, but I suspect our readers know this well enough.
I rather will try to very briefly describe the perfect storm we are noticing.
The land of 192 acres is in escrow to a neighbor two miles down the road. This land is above 4000 ft and has a common border with the 138 sq. mi. Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument (CSNM), a hefty expanse given over to the BLM in 2009 specifically to protect its unusual diversity of plants and animals. The neighbor is a dedicated conservationist himself and is buying it specifically to donate it to the CSNM, for which we are all happy, but so far he has been repectful but adamant about not having it come with people on it. This brings to witness a hot button topic within the conservation movement generally. Can the concept of conservation itself go much further with its own mission without including the human community as a keystone in the diversity mix? See Tending the Wild and 1491 for the update on this topic.
So OPCLT in collaboration with the Land Liberation Project (Tipi Village) is preparing a proposal that will allow the unfolding of the latest conservation strategies concerning the re-integration of people into conserved Nature. Inspired by the successes in their more global Indigenous and Communal Conservation Program we are inviting The Nature Conservancy to mediate this collaboration between One Planet Trust, The Land Liberation Project, the Monument and the prospective buyer, and thereby open this program to North Americans.
We are prepared to fund raise to purchase the land as a sanctuary (it is not expensive) yet we may need up to 3 months to locate the perfect in-kind donor(s) to orchestrate this perfect storm and to help optimize our commons trustee organizational model going forward into the re-indigenous future. We rather require the right person(s) for this long term alliance.
And not finally, Tipi Village is looking to fill their neighborhood with like minds and open hearts, so come on in and be together by the hearth and join us in the tending of the children toward a one planet future worth having.
FinnPo
One Planet Community Land Trust