Several years ago anthropologist Patricia Albers published a chapter–Symbiosis, Merger, and War–in an edited volume on American Indians called The Political Economy of North American Indians. In the chapter, Albers discusses the range of adaptations that northern Plains tribes embraced as part of their management of relationships with other tribes and with various invading European colonists (Spanish, French and Anglo).

She suggests that these relationships existed along a continuum, from open and relatively mutually beneficial trade on the one hand to outright war and hostility, on the other. Sometimes tribes traded with each other or with various colonists, at other times they raided each other and ‘procured’ supplies via raiding and sacking settlements. This was the famous Raiding Mode of Production that plains Indians perfected so well.

A similar arrangement was struck on the South Plains by the Comanche Nation, who variously traded openly with Pueblo communities in Northern New Mexico, while at other times they persistently raided the Pueblos and simply took what they wanted. Throughout most of the 19th century, the Comanches were off and on again ‘at peace’ with the Spanish in New Mexico, though there were times when the whole region was engulfed in war. This is how the Comanches earned the name Lords of the South Plains.

The northern Plains tribes that Albers talks about, as well as the Comanches, were NOMADS. They lived via nomadic, hunter gather forms of adaptation. In this, they (even if it was relatively shortlived, from ~1680-1880) were living what would be the last chapter of fully free nomadism in the history of North America. Sometimes they worked with the Spanish and French, sometimes they raided them for supplies and captives, and sometimes they worked together to fight against other groups.

Nomadic Raiding Today

Today’s nomads and cyber foragers relate to various colonialists (i.e. BigCo) along a similar continuum ranging from symbiosis-to-merger-to-war. Independent creatives and entrepreneurs know that they need larger organizations to purchase their talent and their work, so there is an inevitable symbiosis that lies at the heart of the Independent Economy. At the same time, there is no shortage of hostility between today’s nomads and today’s colonists. We have been ranting this hostility here for quite some time…

When symbiosis falls apart, we still love the raiding. The deceit and scum that so often pervades the culture of BigCo is such that they deserve getting summarily sacked now and again. Yet, at the same time, we can and will engage in a short term partnership with colonists, forming various mergers to get a project done.

This is what nomads do. We are reliant on sedentists, but this really pisses us off at the same time. So, we strike up relationships that (hopefully) work to our advantage. Don’t diss us too badly, though, because when the Comanche Moon is out and we can see clearly at night, we might just descend from the Hill Country and take all your shit!

The Butcher