The Conversation
20 Aug 2019, 17:54 GMT+10
In recent years, Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" has become a rallying cry for immigrants. And in July, after President Donald Trump tweeted that four Democratic congresswomen of color needed to "go back where they came from," Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the four targeted, responded with a tweet quoting Guthrie's lyrics.
But not everyone sees the song as an anthem for inclusion.
In June, the Smithsonian's online magazine, Folkways, published a piece that lambasted the song for its omissions.
The article, titled "This Land Is Whose Land?," was written by folk musician Mali Obomsawin, a member of the Native American Abenaki tribe. She wrote of being shaken up "like a soda can" every time she heard the song's lyrics:
Obomsawin's article immediately generated a flurry of responses from conservative media outlets.
"Commie Folksinger Woody Guthrie Not Woke Enough for Mob," jeered Breitbart's John Nolte, delighted with this evidence of internecine strife among what he dubbed the "fascist woketards" of the American left. The Daily Wire's Emily Zanotti soon joined the fray, penning a piece under the headline "This Land Is NOT Your Land: Woke Culture Now Demanding Woody Guthrie Be Canceled Over Folk Music Faux Pas."
But Obomsawin and her conservative critics might be surprised to learn that some of Guthrie's greatest champions have also had difficulties with the song.
As the author of three books on Guthrie, I sometimes wonder how the folksinger would respond to the criticism of "This Land Is Your Land" for its omissions.
While we can't know for sure, a glance at some of his unpublished writings and recently discovered recordings can offer some clues.
Seeger sings a different tune
Pete Seeger, Woody's colleague and protege, was perhaps the most responsible for lodging "This Land Is Your Land" in the public consciousness. After Guthrie died in 1967, Seeger continued to perform the song all around the world.
At the same time, Seeger made it clear that he was sensitive to the theft of Native American lands.
In his memoir, "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," Seeger recalled an incident during a 1968 performance:
Sometimes, in an attempt to ease his conscience when performing "This Land," Seeger would add a verse penned by the singer and activist Carolyn "Cappy" Israel to acknowledge the theft of Native land:
This land is your land, but it once was my land Before we sold you Manhattan Island You pushed my nation to the reservation, This land was stole by you from me. Woody wasn't oblivious
Was Guthrie himself uncomfortable with the song's glaring failure to acknowledge the facts of settler colonialism?
There's no record of his views on the issue. But we do know that he was very aware of - and concerned with - the history of Native American dispossession.
For example, he was angry enough with his cousin, the country singer "Oklahoma Jack" Guthrie, for claiming credit for a song that Woody had written, titled "Oklahoma Hills." But as Woody wrote in an unpublished annotation to the lyrics, Jack had also left out "the best parts of the whole song" - the names of "the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Cherokee, Creek and Seminole" who had prior claim to the lands of Oklahoma.
Then there's a soundbite in a posthumously discovered live recording from 1949:
"They used dope, they used opium, they used every kind of a trick to get these Indians to sign over their lands," Guthrie says to the crowd.
One of these real estate tricksters was actually Woody's own father, Charley Guthrie. As biographer and journalist Joe Klein writes in "Woody Guthrie: A Life," "Because he was able to speak both Creek and Cherokee, Charley became known as especially adept at relieving Indians of their property."
How did Charley learn these Native tongues? Was it possible that the Guthries had Native ancestors?
In a tantalizingly vague 1950 letter to activist Stetson Kennedy, Woody notes "the rainbow blends" of his own bloodline, including "pure virgin island negro" and unnamed "Indian tribelines."
And in an unpublished poem entitled "Sweety Black Girl," written the same year, Guthrie writes:
my blood beats Spanish and my breath burns Indian and my soul boils negro.
Guthrie admitted that he was ashamed of his father's disreputable real estate practices. And while he may have idealized his own genealogy, there's no doubt that he was fully aware of "whose land was whose."
Native Americans see Guthrie as an ally
Interestingly, not all Native Americans view the song in the same light as Obomsawin.
The song has proved adaptable and malleable enough to enable some Native American artists to work with it.
In 2007, the Anishinaabe songwriter and musician Keith Secola sang his Ojibwa-language version of "This Land" on the album "Native Americana - A Coup Stick."
Secola said in an interview that his version "reflects a worldview, of being a part of the world and not detached from it. Woody was into people creating their own stories. ... That's what I got from him - how to apply this strategy, this procedure of songwriting, to the topics that affect American Indians."
A few years before Secola's cover, two of Guthrie's previously unpublished songs - "Indian Corn Song" and "Mean Things Happenin' in This World" - were recorded by the Navajo siblings, Klee, Clayson and Jeneda Benally.
"We wanted to keep the spirit of Woody Guthrie alive," Clayton said in a 2012 interview. "He wrote songs about the Dust Bowl and unions, but he also wrote about American Indian issues."
Clayson noted that "Indian Corn Song" was one of his favorite songs to play, because in it Guthrie "talks about wastefulness and how Indigenous people are ... living off the planet in a balanced way."
Mali Obomsawin might take heart from Secola, the Benally siblings and the other artist-activists who have adopted and adapted "This Land Is Your Land."
Woody Guthrie might not have been perfect, they say, but we don't need to "cancel" him.
We'll work with him instead.
"Sweety Black Girl" and unpublished Woody Guthrie correspondence and annotations, words by Woody Guthrie © Copyright Woody Guthrie Publications, Inc., all rights reserved, used by permission.
[ Like what you've read? Want more? Sign up for The Conversation's daily newsletter. ]
Author: Will Kaufman - Professor of American Literature and Culture, University of Central Lancashire
Get a daily dose of Nashville Herald news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to Nashville Herald.
More InformationIn the past month alone, 23 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza—three more than the number of remaining living hostages held...
LONDON, U.K.: At least 13 people are believed to have taken their own lives as a result of the U.K.'s Post Office scandal, in which...
WASHINGTON, D.C.: Travelers at U.S. airports will no longer need to remove their shoes during security screenings, Department of Homeland...
WASHINGTON, D.C.: An elaborate impersonation scheme involving artificial intelligence targeted senior U.S. and foreign officials in...
SLUBICE, Poland: Poland reinstated border controls with Germany and Lithuania on July 7, following Germany's earlier reintroduction...
WASHINGTON, D.C.: After months of warnings from former federal officials and weather experts, the deadly flash floods that struck the...
WASHINGTON, D.C.: A federal rule designed to make it easier for Americans to cancel subscriptions has been blocked by a U.S. appeals...
BASTROP, Texas: In a surprising turn at Elon Musk's X platform, CEO Linda Yaccarino announced she is stepping down, just months after...
NEW YORK CITY, New York: Former British prime minister Rishi Sunak will return to Goldman Sachs in an advisory role, the Wall Street...
LONDON, U.K.: Physically backed gold exchange-traded funds recorded their most significant semi-annual inflow since the first half...
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands: Some 32 percent of global semiconductor production could face climate change-related copper supply disruptions...
NEW YORK, New York - U.S. stocks rebounded Tuesday with all the major indices gaining ground. Markets in the UK, Europe and Canada...