On a passing way of life – and justice

So I had something of a harsh thought while reading Backbone of the Mountains and the author’s lamentations of an old-West way of life that is disappearing. Traditional industries like ranching, farming (at least in the Rocky Mountains), and mining are becoming less and less profitable, and the population that was so employed must now do something else, perhaps even giving up their land in the process.

I don’t really have an opinion of whether that transition is a good thing or not. Certainly it’s painful for some of the people involved. But – harsh though it may be, I’m not sure you can call it unfair. What has been happening to them the past fifty years or so – a culture being squeezed and made irrelevant by a modern economy – is exactly how they acquired the land to begin with. In a sense, what is happening to the rural West now is what happened to the Indians, only now the current residents are on the receiving end.