* Pioneering New Frontiers—with Empty Beer Cans

"Pioneering New Frontiers" is the U of Nebraska's "new" (a few years old now) PR "slogan." And it certainly well represents an ongoing colonialist ideology that still permeates this state in terms of both place names and—I assume—good ol' boy attitudes, be they conscious or unconscious. As I've travelled the back dirt roads around Lincoln this summer in search of birds, the names of the lakes and SRAs (State Recreational Areas) have struck me as inordinately symptomatic: places like Stagecoach, and Wagon Train, and Conestoga. (As I drag my binoculars out of the car upon my arrival at one of these venues, I half-expect Hoss Cartwright or Rowdy Yates to show up on a fast horse and ask me, "Boy. [Dramatic pause.] You from around these parts?") Then there are the apparent acknowledgements to Native Americana, as in the names of Pawnee Lake/SRA and Indian Cave State Park. But for some reason, I keep hearing in my mind's ear "Indian Joe State Park" for the latter, and feel the flash-of-a-moment hope that Tom & Becky are safe from that savage ne'er-do-well's dastardly doings. (In other words, there's something exotically sinister in the connotations of the very phrase "Indian Cave.") At last, such names—"in these here parts"—sound so much like guilty elegies, half-hearted half-tributes to a race long gone. (And—well—"good riddance to 'em!" Examine a state map of Nebraska for Indian reservations to see how well the Natives were gotten rid of—in "these parts.")

Thank the Lord, then, that the colonials are taking good care of the good ol' Nebraska land, what with all the nature set-asides and such. (I keep reverting here to redneck idioms, for some reason.) Every SRA & state park has a large sign at every entrance, "No alcohol consumption allowed." But I swear that I've seen more empty beer cans and broken beer bottles in such places than I have Red-winged Blackbirds. (Hint: these are very common birds "in these parts"!) Seriously, I guess the problem is state funding for enforcement; the staffing of even the more frequented state parks seems really insufficient, and I'd assume, too, that conservation is hardly high on the agenda of those at the State Capitol, proud though they be of the nesting pair of Peregrines atop that building.