Small town dynamics
30/08/16 02:54
We stopped last night at Milton-Freewater, Oregon, a small town just south of Walla Walla, Washington. Our nephew is just beginning his second year as a high school English teacher in the community. Yesterday was freshman orientation day. Today is the first full day of school of the new school year. As we walked through the empty school building last night, we looked at the rows and rows of pictures of the senior classes of the school. There are pictures of most graduating classes from the 1940’s to recent years posted high on the walls of the historic building. Looking at those pictures is a lesson in the shifting population of the area.
Milton-Freewater was settled as two separate towns in the upper Walla Walla river valley. Milton was the town of idealistic pioneer farmers who were quick to form a community with multiple churches and community organizations. After the tragic deaths of the founders of the Whitman mission in Walla Walla, other Christian settlers came to the area. The land is high plains desert and life in the region was harsh. Wherever there was water, however, the rich volcanic soil yielded good crops. The valley became famous for its fruit orchards and onion farms. Others learned the patient practice of dryland winter wheat farming in the areas outside of the river bottoms. Milton was officially a dry town, with no alcohol served. It still carries that heritage of strict moral rules. Oregon is one of the states where the recreational use of marijuana is legal. Milton-Freewater, however, has yet to allow a dispensary inside of its city limits.
Right next to the town of Milton, the town of Freewater was a bit more open and free with its rules and regulations. Alcohol was served and local businesses grew up to dispense some of the vices that were illegal in the neighboring town, and some of the customers of the services of Freewater were prominent citizens of Milton. The two towns developed separate downtown areas and residential neighborhoods. In general, the bigger and more expensive homes were located in Milton, the southern and upstream town. After the initial influx of settlement, the population dropped in both towns and it became practical for them to merge and become a single municipality. The point of meeting was the huge modern brick high school right between the two towns built to accommodate about 500 students and serve both communities.
For decades the school was primarily filled with students with European names and heritages, the children of farmers and merchants who served the agricultural economy. In the later decades of the 20th century the class pictures began to show more and more students with Hispanic names and darker skin tones. The entire region, from Milton-Freewater to Yakima and beyond was filling with migrant workers who came to the area in the summer to provide labor for the fruit farms and began to settle as year-round citizens. There was a huge gap in the economies of the resident land owners and the migrant farm workers. Lacking year-round employment, the migrants learned to live simply and modestly while the land owners began to accumulate wealth.
then, as the 21st century began, a new class of wealthy people began to filter into the valley. These were the developers of vineyards to serve the growing tastes of the nation for domestic wines. Many vineyard developers came from California and arrived with significant wealth. They bought huge areas of land and developed huge estates with massive homes and lush irrigated landscaping. Like the apple and peach orchardists before them, the wine growers employed seasonal workers to provide labor for their enterprises. The gap between the rich and the poor is now very evident to anyone who comes into the area, with clusters of mobile homes in dusty fields with no trees clearly in view of the lush estates of the land owners.
Milton-Freewater’s high school is about 50% Hispanic these days. Being at the upper end of the valley and across the border between Washington and Oregon, the school is in an athletic league with other small town Oregon schools. Those schools are primarily outside of the fruit-growing region and largely populated by students of European descent. Milton-Freewater’s students, many of whom have Mexican ancestry, stand out as being different. Over the years there have been some rather ugly incidents of racism, not unlike incidents that have occurred around the borders of Indian country in our part of the country. Taunts, cheers, threats and occasional fist fights have broken out over school sports events.
Last spring, there was an incident involving area schools that had much of the tone of previous racial incidents. The students are well aware that yelling racial epithets is not acceptable and will not be tolerated by school officials. The cheer that broke out was simply the name of the man who during the summer became the nominee of the Republican party for President. “Trump, Trump, Trump” were the words that were being yelled, not forbidden by the official rules of the schools, but clearly being used as a cheer against the school with a mixed team of hispanic and white students.
As I heard the report of the incident, I couldn’t help but wonder how the name of the legitimate candidate of a major party for the top office of our land could become a racial epithet. I also was struck by the patience and dedication of our young nephew who is giving so much of his life and energy to the process of teaching students in this setting of huge economic, social and racial discrepancies. Despite the tensions of the region and the problems faced by the students, he continues to see promise in the young people who come to his school and stands as witness to the power of education to change the lives of students. He understands how educational success can translate into upward economic mobility and remains idealistic despite the huge problems faced by his students.
I don’t have the name of a candidate to yell as a positive cheer to counter the negative cheers yelled at school sporting events. But I do have great respect and admiration for the brave teachers who put their lives on the line every day to serve all of the students in their schools.
Milton-Freewater was settled as two separate towns in the upper Walla Walla river valley. Milton was the town of idealistic pioneer farmers who were quick to form a community with multiple churches and community organizations. After the tragic deaths of the founders of the Whitman mission in Walla Walla, other Christian settlers came to the area. The land is high plains desert and life in the region was harsh. Wherever there was water, however, the rich volcanic soil yielded good crops. The valley became famous for its fruit orchards and onion farms. Others learned the patient practice of dryland winter wheat farming in the areas outside of the river bottoms. Milton was officially a dry town, with no alcohol served. It still carries that heritage of strict moral rules. Oregon is one of the states where the recreational use of marijuana is legal. Milton-Freewater, however, has yet to allow a dispensary inside of its city limits.
Right next to the town of Milton, the town of Freewater was a bit more open and free with its rules and regulations. Alcohol was served and local businesses grew up to dispense some of the vices that were illegal in the neighboring town, and some of the customers of the services of Freewater were prominent citizens of Milton. The two towns developed separate downtown areas and residential neighborhoods. In general, the bigger and more expensive homes were located in Milton, the southern and upstream town. After the initial influx of settlement, the population dropped in both towns and it became practical for them to merge and become a single municipality. The point of meeting was the huge modern brick high school right between the two towns built to accommodate about 500 students and serve both communities.
For decades the school was primarily filled with students with European names and heritages, the children of farmers and merchants who served the agricultural economy. In the later decades of the 20th century the class pictures began to show more and more students with Hispanic names and darker skin tones. The entire region, from Milton-Freewater to Yakima and beyond was filling with migrant workers who came to the area in the summer to provide labor for the fruit farms and began to settle as year-round citizens. There was a huge gap in the economies of the resident land owners and the migrant farm workers. Lacking year-round employment, the migrants learned to live simply and modestly while the land owners began to accumulate wealth.
then, as the 21st century began, a new class of wealthy people began to filter into the valley. These were the developers of vineyards to serve the growing tastes of the nation for domestic wines. Many vineyard developers came from California and arrived with significant wealth. They bought huge areas of land and developed huge estates with massive homes and lush irrigated landscaping. Like the apple and peach orchardists before them, the wine growers employed seasonal workers to provide labor for their enterprises. The gap between the rich and the poor is now very evident to anyone who comes into the area, with clusters of mobile homes in dusty fields with no trees clearly in view of the lush estates of the land owners.
Milton-Freewater’s high school is about 50% Hispanic these days. Being at the upper end of the valley and across the border between Washington and Oregon, the school is in an athletic league with other small town Oregon schools. Those schools are primarily outside of the fruit-growing region and largely populated by students of European descent. Milton-Freewater’s students, many of whom have Mexican ancestry, stand out as being different. Over the years there have been some rather ugly incidents of racism, not unlike incidents that have occurred around the borders of Indian country in our part of the country. Taunts, cheers, threats and occasional fist fights have broken out over school sports events.
Last spring, there was an incident involving area schools that had much of the tone of previous racial incidents. The students are well aware that yelling racial epithets is not acceptable and will not be tolerated by school officials. The cheer that broke out was simply the name of the man who during the summer became the nominee of the Republican party for President. “Trump, Trump, Trump” were the words that were being yelled, not forbidden by the official rules of the schools, but clearly being used as a cheer against the school with a mixed team of hispanic and white students.
As I heard the report of the incident, I couldn’t help but wonder how the name of the legitimate candidate of a major party for the top office of our land could become a racial epithet. I also was struck by the patience and dedication of our young nephew who is giving so much of his life and energy to the process of teaching students in this setting of huge economic, social and racial discrepancies. Despite the tensions of the region and the problems faced by the students, he continues to see promise in the young people who come to his school and stands as witness to the power of education to change the lives of students. He understands how educational success can translate into upward economic mobility and remains idealistic despite the huge problems faced by his students.
I don’t have the name of a candidate to yell as a positive cheer to counter the negative cheers yelled at school sporting events. But I do have great respect and admiration for the brave teachers who put their lives on the line every day to serve all of the students in their schools.