Native America Calling: The Dust Bowl and Native displacement

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Wednesday, September 21, 2022

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The Dust Bowl and Native displacement

The story of the Dust Bowl often focuses on the plight of European settlers whose agricultural promise descended into absolute ruin during decades of drought.

But the nation’s most infamous climate disaster also precipitated the needless forced slaughter of masses of Native-owned livestock and subsequent land and water use policies to the detriment of many tribes. Today on Native America Calling, Andi Murphy reflects on the Dust Bowl’s legacy for Native Americans.

Florence Owens Thompson, born Florence Leona Christie, is the subject of Dorothea Lange’s photograph “Migrant Mother.” Thompson was born in Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma and migrated to California during the Dust Bowl. The photo was taken in 1936. Photo: Dorothea Lange / Franklin D. Roosevelt Library Public Domain Photographs (NAID 195301)

Guests on Native America Calling

Dr. David Chang (Native Hawaiian), professor of history and American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota

Dr. David Wilkins (Lumbee), professor at the University of Richmond

Larry O’Dell, director of communications at the Oklahoma Historical Society

Greg Scott, Oklahoma Conservation Commission soil scientist and geomorphologist