5 Novels of Honor, Courage, and the Spiritual Nature of the First Nations
I grew up watching John Wayne westerns and being taught Manifest Destiny—that the United States citizens of 1845 had a God-given mission to expand their borders all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Like many Americans, this was my early-education concerning Native Americans.
Luckily, I didn’t stop learning when I graduated school. By studying a more truthful history of the indigenous people of this country and their treatment, it was evident that history is written by the winners and conquerors.
Starting in the 1930’s, several award-winning authors told western and frontier tales from the viewpoint of the Indians: honorable people with a rich culture and high morals. Albeit mournful, these tales share what Native American life was like during those times and this historical fiction preserves history through stories that must be told.
Here are five groundbreaking stories at the vanguard of this movement and away from the “bloodthirsty savage.”
Buckskin Brigades by L. Ron Hubbard (1937)
The setting of this novel is Montana and the Great Northwest in 1806 with trappers, soldiers and fur companies invading any land that could supply beaver pelts for the felt-hat demand in Europe. Yellow Hair of the Pikunni tribe, raised in the ways of the Blackfeet, worries for the future of his people. He is tasked to infiltrate the white man to learn the English language and their ways to protect his tribe. Throughout the novel, the author illustrates how honorable the Indians are compared to the savage and immoral actions of the “civilized” white man:
“No matter what the traders’ appellations for them—’bloodthirsty thieves,’ ‘treacherous savages,’ ‘ignorant barbarians,’ and others—the Pikunis did not feel themselves obligated to verify these spurious titles by attacking the fort without real reason.”
At every turn, Yellow Hair, expecting to be treated with honor and respect, is thwarted, bullied and several times almost killed by men with no decency. This great adventure tale, was made even better through sharing the viewpoint of the Blackfeet Indians as heroes and the true guardians of the land. It is a tribute to the First Nations.
When the Legends Die by Hal Borland (1963)
A young Ute boy, Thomas Black Bull, is brought up in the traditional Indian ways but loses his parents at a young age. At the reservation school, the authorities deprive him of his lifestyle habits to “civilize” him and they treat him with prejudice simply because he is a Native American. Red Dillon helps train Thomas to better his riding skills and they go on the rodeo circuit, but Red controls him to ride the way that most benefits Red’s betting.
Thomas resents all the people who try to control him:
“Then he remembered and the whole pattern fell into place. Blue Elk, Benny Grayback, Rowena Ellis, Red Dillon—they had trapped him, every one of them, had tried to run his life, make him do things their way.”
After becoming seriously injured in a rodeo accident, Black Bull takes a job as a shepherd in the mountains of his youth. Here he finally finds contentment and re-engages with the old Ute ways, which are illustrated as spiritually deep, noble, and redemptive for Thomas Black Bull.
The Light in the Forest by Conrad Richter (1953)
True Son (aka John Cameron Butler) who is now fifteen and has been raised by the Delaware Indians since age four, is told by a soldier who is forcibly returning him to the white world:
“’You’ve been away from us for a long time,’ Del soothed him. ‘When you’re back in our country a while, you’ll get used to us.’”
The novel contrasts the natural freedom of the Indian world versus the confining elements of living within civilization. At the same time, it shows the Indians to be more loving, rational and honorable (they fully accept any race as long as you are loyal to the tribe) versus the bigoted and close-minded whites who never fully accept Indians who embrace the white man’s ways and convert to Christianity. True Son is torn between his new-found younger white brother, and his Indian tribe.
Laughing Boy by Oliver La Farge (1929)
This story won the Pulitzer Prize in 1930, written by a non-Native anthropologist author, whose deep respect for the Navajo culture is shown is his fully realized Indian heroes.
“’What is jail?’ asked Laughing Boy.
“Slender Hair explained: ‘It is something the American Chief does to you. He puts you in a room of stone, like a Moqui house, only it is dark and you can’t get out. People die there, they say. They haven’t any room; they can’t see anything, they say. I do not like to talk about it.’
“Laughing Boy thought, I should rather die. He wanted to ask more, but was ashamed to show his ignorance before these southern Navajos, many of whom wore hats like Americans, and who knew so much of Americans’ ways.”
This story is one that is as old as time. Laughing Boy, raised in the traditional ways, falls in love and marries Slim Girl, who had an American education. He ignores his families’ warnings about her and they settle far away from traditional Indian villages. Besides the differences in the way they were raised, the world and white culture is changing and encroaching, making for even more turmoil into their relationship. One theme running throughout the story is the beautiful and sophisticated Navajo life, aesthetics and values, while showing American influence as corrosive.
Sundown by John Joseph Mathews (1934)
John Mathews was born into the Osage Nation and one of their most important spokesmen. This semi-autobiographical story follows a mixed blood Osage, Challenge Windzer, as he navigates a greatly changing world. Oil money has come into the tribe which disrupts their way of life, and also attracts criminal activity, including Indian murder, by the leading whites in power.
“He felt the presence of the old gods in the wind that came from the west, and in the grass that bowed before it, and he knew that his fathers had felt that presence and had been comforted by it. The wind was the breath of the Great Spirit, and the grass was His hair, and the earth was His body, and all things were one with Him.”
Challenge feels torn between traditional values and the corrupt, materialistic world of white wealth. The novel is an early example of a Native author setting the tone, showing the Osage tribe as proud, organized and rich in spirit.
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In our world where the indigenous peoples were painted for centuries as savages, this allowed “civilized” men to avoid considering the numerous atrocities committed against the peoples of the First Nations. It took until the 1990’s for films like “Dances with Wolves,” “Thunderheart” or “The Last of the Mohicans” to arrive on the scene, depicting Native Americans in culturally respectful ways.
Through their novels, the above authors were the first spark in this revolution by stepping outside the bloodthirsty-barbarian model, to show true Native American characters before it was “fashionable.” While there are good and bad apples among every race, these authors had the courage to step away from the stereotype and through these stories we glimpse these peoples―who were first and foremost humans above all else.
We are allowed to see examples that show the characters’ honor in contrast to the greedy men who worked to take their land, their heritage and abolish their way of life.
John Carey
John Carey paid the bills working as a programmer and IT project manager while he honed his writing skills at night and on the weekends. John’s second book, Not Worthy of the Air you Breathe, is set in the future where nations have taken a cue from the business world by terminating their-low performing citizens at the end of each year.
In these days of challenges to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Programs, it’s timely to look back in our history to mine lessons that could guide us to a more inclusive future. When I reflect on the struggles of minority populations, and specifically the Black community, in American history there is a period that stands out.
Prior to the end of the Civil War, Southern authorities and newspapers worked diligently to deny the reality of self-liberated slaves creating free, multi-generational, and self-sustaining communities in the South. Those locations were known as Maroons, and existed in any country that allowed slavery, e.g., Brazil, Haiti, and many more in the Caribbean and South America. In the American South, estimates indicate that over fifty Maroons existed at various times, located in areas not easily accessible, such as mountainous or swampy terrain.
The largest Maroon in North America survived in southern Virginia and northern North Carolina–the Great Dismal Swamp. Before modern development and encroachment, that swamp covered an area the size of Rhode Island. Research estimates that over 2,000 individuals lived freely in one of the worst environments. Indigenous people, who populated the Dismal for thousands of years before the first runaways arrived, often worked closely with fleeing slaves to share knowledge and skills needed to survive in the swamp. Whether the runaways chose to live alone or settled into larger communities, these amazing people built cooperative systems and a working economy to support themselves.
The basis for their economy centered on harvesting cedar trees and trading with merchants willing to skirt the law. The most in-demand product was finished timber, such as shingles. Wood products harvested and produced by Maroon residents were typically of higher quality and undersold competing products produced by enslavers. This reality demonstrated how minorities could organize and govern themselves, which threatened the myths that authorities spread to justify slavery. In attempts to suppress knowledge among enslaved people about Maroon successes, Southern governments and newspapers attempted to deny the existence of Maroon communities. Because of the vastness of the Dismal Swamp, Maroon communities deep in the swamp were beyond the threat of force.
Among the current President’s many recent directives, Executive Order 3431 directs the dismantling of historical information and exhibits at federal sites that recognize the courage and accomplishments of people who stood up to slavery. Displays and materials honoring the Maroons at the Great Dismal Swamp Refuge have been ordered for removal and will no longer tell the stories of people who refused bondage to create a better future for their children.
Like the Southern authorities attempted to deny that Maroons existed, I see parallel efforts by the current administration. Eliminating programs that support minorities growing skills and gaining resources to fully contribute to a growing economy limits the potential for a better America. A strong society needs all of its people, no matter how diverse. History shows that Southern governments allowing enslavement created economies not as strong as those in Northern states. Decisions today to handicap minorities through administration policies is the wrong direction for a vibrant United States.
What can those who chose freedom, in spite of mosquito swarms and twenty-one kinds of snakes, tell us today? We need to resist misinformation that claims DEI initiatives have no value. In our local communities, we must strive to fill the void created by the administration’s extreme actions. Initiatives with businesses, local governments, and educational institutions must continue to educate about how a diverse society creates a stronger, more creative America. Just as the Maroon residents and their communities sacrificed for a better world, the voices of history cry out to us to resist, stay innovative, and never give in to messages promoting separation.
More than in any other genres, anthologies—whether all-new material, reprints of older stories, or a combination of the two—have been central to the writing and reading of science fiction, fantasy, and horror for nearly a century. Anthologies have long been where speculative fiction experiments, tests boundaries, preserves its history, and inspires new generations of readers and writers.
So here are seven anthologies—some old, some new—that have inspired me as both a writer and an editor. I think they will do the same for you.
As a past winner of the Writers of the Future contest, I have to admit my bias here, but I always look forward to the latest volume in the WOTF series. Why? Because not only is the contest a huge accomplishment for the winning writers, but the contest has an unmatched track record of identifying the next generation of SFF stars—more than Clarion, more than any MFA program. Winners of the Writers of the Future contest this year will be the names appearing on the Hugo and Nebula ballots in a few years. Just watch.
Check out this year’s Grand Prize-winning story, “Ascii” by Randyn C. J. Bartholomew, as well as the stories of all the other winners, alongside fantastic illustrations by the winners of the Illustrators of the Future contest.
Dangerous Visions, [B0CKTYLJTJ] edited by Harlan Ellison (Doubleday, 1967)
It would be hard to make a list like this that doesn’t include what is probably the most influential (and controversial) single anthology of science fiction in the 20th Century.
Dangerous Visions is an anthology of 33 science fiction short stories that helped define what became known as the “New Wave” of science fiction. It broke from many of the tropes and cliches of SFF in the first half of the 20th Century and almost single-handedly redefined how readers (and writers) thought about the possibilities of science fiction.
I picked this up as a Tolkien-obsessed 12-year-old, and it might be the first anthology of all-new SFF that I ever read. The book celebrates the centenary of J.R.R. Tolkien’s birth, and though not set in Middle-earth, the stories are all wonderful. Terry Pratchett’s story “Troll Bridge” in particular has stuck with me all these years.
Other contributors include an incredible lineup of SFF authors like Peter S. Beagle, John Brunner, Stephen R. Donaldson, Andre Norton, Harry Turtledove, and Jane Yolen, amongst others.
Winner of the 2020 Locus, World Fantasy, British Fantasy, Ignyte, and Brave New Words Awards, New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color dazzles with the range of genres and tones included, which you don’t always find in a themed anthology of new work.
You’ll find hard science fiction, posthuman dystopias, as well as riffs on folklore and fairy tales, and stories that verge more on horror. Check out stories by Steven Barnes, Tobias Buckell, Hiromi Goto, Karin Lowachee, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and Rebecca Roanhorse, amongst others. Plus, an introduction by LeVar Burton!
Derelict, [B094K2852K] edited by David B. Coe & Joshua Palmatier (Zombies Need Brains, 2021)
I’m a sucker for stories about abandoned ships, be they starships adrift between the stars, or wave-tossed sailing ships found with their crew missing… Imagine my delight when I found a whole anthology of such tales!
Derelict is an independent press anthology featuring ghost ships, abandoned spaceships, and everything in between. Stand-out stories for me include those from Alex Bledsoe, Julie E. Czerneda, Sharon Lee & Steve Miller, and Jana Paniccia, but all the stories in this excellent volume are worth your time.
Okay, so this isn’t some self-serving recommendation…well, it’s not entirely self-serving. Because this is legitimately a really good anthology! It recently won the 2025 Aurora Award (Volume One won the same award last year), and the series was previously a finalist for the World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology. Plus, Amazing Stories said that the book “belongs on every Canadian reader’s bookshelf,” so, like the man said, you don’t have to take my word for it.
Per capita, more world-class SFF writers hail from Canada than from any other nation, and Canadian authors routinely win or are nominated for the highest awards in the field. So, enjoy works from Cory Doctorow, Amal El-Mohtar, James Alan Gardner, Nalo Hopkinson, Ai Jiang, Premee Mohamed, and Kelly Robson (amongst others) and you’ll soon understand why.
This is such a great theme for an anthology: a collection of exciting, powerful science fiction and fantasy stories…that had all been rejected (sometimes a lot) before finally seeing publication. It’s proof for writers that just because the story you believe in gets rejected doesn’t mean it’s a bad story or poorly written. Sometimes, it just hasn’t found the right editor yet.
Each story includes an author’s note about its rejection history, and notable rejectees include Science Fiction Grand Masters and New York Times bestsellers like Samuel R. Delany, Kevin J. Anderson & Rebecca Moesta, and award-winning SFF authors like Robert J. Sawyer and Rich Larson, amongst others.
Stephen Kotowych is a World Fantasy Award finalist and winner of Canada’s Aurora Award, Spain’s Premi Ictineu, and the Writers of the Future Grand Prize. His stories have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies in Canada, the UK, and the US and have been translated into a dozen languages.
He is the series editor for Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction and SFWA’s Nebula Awards Showcase. His first collection of short stories, Seven Against Tomorrow, is available now. Visit his website, www.kotowych.com.
When I began writing Between the Sauce, Stars and Heaven, I thought I was simply preserving memories of growing up in a small Italian-American town. What I discovered was that each story — from the kitchen table to the church pew to the neighborhood porch — held a deeper lesson about faith, family, and resilience.
I wrote about my Uncle Angelo, a rogue with a mischievous streak, who once “pickpocketed” my father during a porch visit, only to toss his wallet back with a grin and the words, “Thanks, brother. I love you.”
I told of my grandfather, who arrived from Carpino, Italy in 1907 with just $12 in his pocket and a heart full of faith. His journey through Ellis Island — and even the changes to our family name that happened there — became the foundation for generations of love, sacrifice, and opportunity in Netcong, New Jersey.
And I shared the most personal story of all: my near-death experience after a sudden heart attack, when I was clinically dead for 12 minutes before being revived. That moment changed everything for me — how I see life, how I love my family, and how I measure success.
That experience was even featured on the national TV show Call 911. You can watch the reenactment here: https://t.ly/lSY-H/call911 or by scanning the QR code image attached to this email, which you’re welcome to use in social posts, graphics, or handouts.
These stories aren’t just mine. They belong to anyone who’s ever sat at a family table crowded with food and laughter, to anyone who’s found strength in faith during loss, and to anyone who’s wondered how the struggles of those before us shaped the lives we live today.
My hope is that readers will see their own families, traditions, and journeys reflected in these pages — and be reminded that even in hardship, life is rich with grace and meaning.
Between the Sauce, Stars and Heaven is more than a memoir. It’s a reminder that our stories matter, that our roots keep us grounded, and that faith and family can carry us through anything.
(Bruce Janigian was a former attorney adviser for USAID. The following is derived from his recent novels written as Avery Mann)
Had anyone in the White House bothered to check on what the US Agency for International Development was doing before it was immediately shut down by the new administration? In fact, USAID was instrumental in many countries producing rare earths and other vital minerals and was part of the Critical Minerals Subcommittee along with DOD.
The Strategic and Critical Materials Stock Piling Act directs the Department of Defense to identify strategic materials of interest for national defense. The Act defines “strategic and critical materials” as: materials that (A) would be needed to supply the military, industrial, and essential civilian needs of the United States during a national emergency, and (B) are not found or produced in the United States in sufficient quantities to meet such need. The Defense Logistics Agency is tasked to procure and maintain these materials, and rare earths are all included.
Instead of stockpiling rare earths, however, the USA was now confronted with China cutting off supplies during a trade war instigated here without bothering to stockpile these essential materials. Today, POTUS and Putin are on the case with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF). That is to say, American investment in Russia even while it continues its war against Ukraine and gets arms, missiles, drones, and manpower from North Korea, as well as technology from China, including technology utilizing the rare earths that will no longer find their way here.
It is probably worth considering why USAID was an early target of this administration. Rather than just seeking to exploit mineral wealth abroad, it was aiming at the transformative promise of clean energy by protecting green mineral supply chains from systematic corruption.
As USAID saw it, new and emergent green energy technologies rely on more than two dozen “green minerals” that are critical to a successful shift away from fossil fuels. As the world transitions to renewable energy sources, many countries are poised to capitalize on the surge of demand for green minerals. The potential for an international “green mining boom” could benefit millions through employment and inclusive, sustainable economic growth.
You can already see the problem. USAID saw this as “green” and a shift away from fossil fuels. The current White House doesn’t quite see it that way. The term “Green” gets as much support as “Equity, Inclusion,” … and so on.
Yet USAID was quite correct in looking at the larger picture. As USAID saw it, without a significant course correction and investment in new, innovative approaches to addressing corruption, countries rich with green minerals will face the same resource curse that has plagued so many oil-rich countries.
As the world transitions to green energy technologies that rely heavily on critical minerals like rare earths, USAID aimed to ensure that the mining boom associated with these minerals fostered economic growth and local development while mitigating negative environmental and social impacts in partner countries. Through initiatives like the Powering a Just Energy Transition Green Minerals Challenge (JET Minerals Challenge), USAID supported innovations that fight corruption within green mineral supply chains, including those for rare-earth elements. This involved promoting transparency, accountability, and integrity in both the public and private sectors.
USAID’s statement on this subject was as follows: “As a global community, we have an opportunity to collectively harness the transformational potential of green energy technologies while avoiding the distortion of governance—as well as the environmental ruin, human rights abuses, and marginalization—that often accompany extractive industries. This will require preventing corruption from penetrating green minerals supply chains—and uprooting it where it does exist to fulfill the promise of an inclusive, sustainable, and just clean energy future.”
It is hard to imagine a more provocative statement to resource-exploiting enterprises that tend to thrive on corruption and the opportunities it provides for wealth creation for foreign investors.
The details were provided by USAID itself:
Corruption thrives in the shadows that obscure how mining licenses, concessions, and rights are obtained; the terms of the deals; what mining royalties are received and where they go; and who ultimately benefits. In addition, it is often difficult to trace the journey of minerals from mine site to smelter and refinery to manufacturers to consumers. Hidden by systematic inefficiencies and a lack of adequate information, corrupt actors—often enabled by professional facilitators such as bankers, lawyers, and accountants—exploit the demand for green minerals to amass wealth for themselves and their networks. Innovative solutions in this track will constrain opportunities for corruption by simplifying systems, increasing competition on a level playing field, and promoting transparency across green mineral supply chains…
“There is a notable contrast between the massive volumes of mineral wealth flowing out of a country and the limited investment going back into the communities and countries from which they came. Corruption can also be visibly out in the open—from the houses purchased from the proceeds of bid rigging or bribes, to the notable absence of an ‘agreed upon’ tarmac road, to luxurious yachts crossing the globe. Systematic weaknesses, power imbalances, and impunity often ‘protect’ powerful political and economic elites—including senior government officials and unscrupulous companies, state-owned enterprises, politically exposed persons, and their transnational corrupt partners—from experiencing any real consequences (legal, economic, political, or reputational) of their criminal actions. Innovative solutions in this track will raise the costs of corruption by promoting accountability and challenging the status quo of pervasive supply chain exploitation…
“With current demand far exceeding supply, green minerals are a ‘seller’s market’ with fierce competition. Producing countries have options for the sale of their resources and corrupt public officials may woo or be enticed by strategic competitors offering deals that align with their own personal interests or short-term gains at the expense of long-term, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth. For companies all along the supply chain, from mining companies extracting the minerals to the well-known corporations that bring them to your home or garage, it may be cumbersome at best—or competitively disadvantageous at worst—for responsible actors to ensure integrity throughout the green mineral supply chain. Innovative solutions in this track will incentivize public and private integrity among producers and consumers of mineral products, cultivating a race to the top among companies utilizing green minerals…
“Promoting Responsible and Transparent Governance: USAID has over twenty years of experience supporting responsible supply chains for various minerals. They work to implement global transparency and anti-corruption standards like the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI). This aims to ensure that the extraction of resources, including rare earths, is done in a way that benefits local communities and is environmentally sustainable, reducing the risks of the ‘resource curse.”
Well, there we go. Or rather, there USAID went. It will be up to the courts to decide how an agency begun with legislation signed by John F. Kennedy can be dismantled by an executive order, or even worse, by a billionaire on a manic demonstration with a fake chainsaw.
USAID and soft power would have also been important in the US quest for Greenland. President Truman tried to acquire Greenland from Denmark in 1946. With the thawing of the Arctic, the map of world trade and military strategy is being redrawn on a daily basis. But what happened to the subtle arts of diplomacy and patient persuasion? The style of leadership on sensitive issues means a great deal. One of the greatest tools developed carefully since the last world war was USAID. It was designed to help countries in ways that opened doors.
It is true that the USA was often criticized in the developing world for creating dependencies that led to support for US policies, even when they were not precisely aligned to local popular will. But on the whole, it worked. Over the years, this success led to a more long-term methodology, and understandable attempts internally to get the assistance as far away from CIA manipulations as possible. It eventually also needed to be moved from direct State Department control, as USAID grew committed increasingly to more subtle, longer-term diplomacy… soft power. The idea behind the International Development Cooperation Agency (IDCA) was championed by Senator Hubert Humphrey in 1978. It sought to bring together various foreign aid activities, particularly those related to bilateral programs administered by USAID and multilateral programs of international lending institutions and to turn foreign aid and development into a more coordinated and serious endeavor. Not surprisingly, it was defunded by the Reagan administration.
USAID was created and funded to help stabilize countries from the chaos upon which popular communist movements could arise and take hold. With the threat of communist subversion gone, creating chaos seemed actually to now become part of this country’s global strategy.
The history that gave rise to USAID is worth considering. As far back as the nineteenth century, the USA engaged in some forms of international assistance, often linked to foreign policy objectives. For example, in 1812, the USA provided food aid to Venezuela following a devastating earthquake, partly to foster commercial ties during Venezuela’s fight for independence from Spain.
During World War I, the US government contributed significantly to the Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB) to provide food to the hungry. After the war, the American Relief Administration continued food distribution in war-torn Europe and even famine relief in Soviet Russia. More formal foreign assistance programs evolved along lines dictated by strategic imperatives, first in World War II, then in the Cold War. The Institute of Inter-American Affairs was established after the third Allied foreign ministers’ meeting in Rio de Janeiro in 1942. Attached to the US Department of State, the Institute sponsored a wide range of social and economic programs in cooperation with other US agencies and governments of Latin American countries.
In his inaugural address, President Harry S. Truman proposed the “Point Four Program,” a technical assistance initiative for developing countries. It aimed to share American scientific and industrial knowledge to foster economic growth and stability in less developed regions, partly as a way to counter communist influence. The Mutual Security Act (1951–1961) followed to broaden the scope of US foreign aid, emphasizing military assistance alongside economic development. It formalized the link between foreign aid and national security during the Cold War, aiming to strengthen allies against the Soviet Union.
The Food for Peace (PL-480) program came about in 1954 to employ American agricultural surpluses as food aid to address food insecurity, while serving foreign policy objectives.
The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 became the landmark legislation establishing the US Agency for International Development (USAID) as the primary agency to administer civilian foreign aid, consolidating the various existing programs. Along with the Peace Corps, it was a personal emphasis of President Kennedy, aiming to promote long-term economic and social development in recipient countries.
The Overseas Private Investment Corporation was added to USAID’s portfolio in 1971 under President Richard Nixon. It added a more market-oriented approach to foreign aid, encouraging private investment through political risk insurance and loan guarantees.
In spite of its noticeable record of success in adding soft power to the strategic interests of the USA, USAID suffered from the lack of a strong domestic constituency, as well as a public perception that vastly overstated its budget. Adding to this was the difficulty of measuring its long-term impact. The inherent risks of operating in politically unstable or high-threat environments made it challenging to demonstrate clear and immediate results. This made it a cheap shot for the likes of former Senator Jesse Helms, who described foreign aid as “throwing money down foreign rat holes.” At the same time, some on the left criticized USAID for being a tool of US foreign policy, promoting a neo-liberal agenda, and not adequately addressing the root causes of poverty and inequality.
One of the major issues facing USAID was getting recipient or “host” country officials and their lawyers aware of the international commercial and ethical issues they would need to successfully negotiate and manage global contracts. With development assistance came private firms from abroad. Assistance available to their countries would do little good unless the countries could develop the knowledge and skills to avoid overreaching or corruption in the delivery and utilization of the assistance.
To address this, in 1983, two USAID lawyers, L. Michael Hager and William T. Loris, set about creating the International Development Law Institute (IDLI). In 1988, IDLI became an intergovernmental organization with the support of eight governments. It was later granted Permanent Observer Status at the United Nations General Assembly, becoming the International Development Law Organization (IDLO), with its mandate broadened to include promoting the rule of law and sustainable development. It remains actively engaged in ninety countries.
In 1993, an initiative was launched by the Clinton-Gore administration to make the federal government “work better, cost less, and get results Americans care about.” Formally known as the National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR), it was a significant effort led by Al Gore to reform the federal government. The USAID administrator immediately offered up his politically beset agency.
The author also weighed in on the needed transformation. USAlD would have to address the lack of broad support for foreign aid in the United States as well as in recipient countries—a factor that has led to the failure of many assistance projects. It must design its programs so they function well despite rising ethnic and religious conflict in many recipient countries. It must also reform its top-down process and get buy-in from affected constituencies in reframing the foreign aid policymaking process.
Nothing for USAID but More for Obsolete Junk?
What explained the traditional hold on power by the neocons could be traced back to the old Cold War myth of the “missile gap” and, more precisely, to the income generation related to it. For example, despite exorbitant costs of maintaining old legacy systems, like the Minuteman III ICBMs scattered in underground silos across the American heartland, the Pentagon was moving ahead with an even more costly replacement, a new ICBM system called the Sentinel (also known as the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent). This program was underway, with the Sentinel expected to begin replacing the Minuteman III around 2029, with full operational capability projected for 2036, involving 450 launch silos and over 600 facilities. The staggering costs and overruns were overwhelming budgets, especially because, in addition to the costs of the missiles, it was later determined that new silos would be required. (Does any of this make sense when you can win a modern war just by cutting a few undersea cables?)
The Sentinel program is widely regarded as a waste of funds on an outdated concept. However, senators from the ICBM states (Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, and Utah) have historically formed a coalition to advocate for the preservation and modernization of land-based missiles. They have actively lobbied to prevent reductions in the ICBM force and pushed for a replacement for the Minuteman III, joining forces with Northrop Grumman who got a sole source award for the Sentinel. Work on the Sentinel program was carefully distributed across several states, including Utah, Alabama, Colorado, Nebraska, California, Arizona, and Maryland. This geographic spread ensured that numerous congressional districts would benefit economically from the program through jobs and contracts.
The ancient “missile gap” myth that continues to underlie support for programs like Sentinel was missing for USAID, as was the developed congressional support. There was no “swing state” importance for USAID. If nature had not been unfriendly to the secret Iceman missile base at Camp Century, and had the Polaris missile submarines not been developed timely, that base in Greenland could still have been in operation, supported by those who would profit from maintaining it and their congressional representatives.
Mike Waltz served on the House Armed Services Committee, specifically the subcommittees on Readiness and on Strategic Forces. As National Security Adviser, Waltz was seen as a traditional neocon hawk, supporting a military option in Iran. The opposing MAGA thinking was still evolving, but was clearly transactional in nature and unrestrained by traditional policies. Its isolationist center was consistent with breaking America’s hegemonic traditions and interventionist past. But what then of continuing military involvement overseas and some 750 bases in at least 80 countries. What was the role of the USA in the modern era?
With Waltz out, POTUS granted the national security adviser role to the secretary of state on an interim basis. Some contenders for the position believe the military is essential in protecting American business interests in the Global South, particularly those engaged in resource extraction, the giant oil concerns, and conglomerates with names familiar around the world.
Toward a New, Sustainable USAID Paradigm
USAID has a coalition in Congress supporting PL-480 wheat, the ‘Food for Peace’ program. That’s because it serves as an outlet for US agricultural surpluses. In addition to its humanitarian benefits, PL-480 supports American farmers and the shipping industry. Other programs like development assistance, democracy promotion, or environmental initiatives also have advocates, but without domestic economic benefits, humanitarian appeal often falls short. USAID needs the defense department to speak up on its behalf and to carry it along as its ‘soft power’ arm. It will do more for American interests in preventing wars and epidemics than the Sentinel program, that’s for sure.
We have construction planning approvals contingent on containing public spaces or set asides. The contractors pay for that and include it in their bids. What if defense contractors had to include set asides for humanitarian programs to help offset the effects of their defense projects? Adding a required soft power component to their hard power activities? They already have the lobbying machinery in place. We just insert a foreign assistance component that they sell Congress as part of their weapon systems package?
Carbon offset projects are a precedent for this idea. To neutralize the climate impact of activities that produce carbon emissions, the company invests in projects that prevent or remove those same emissions. To offset the dangerous activities, they purchase ‘carbon credits.’ The money from the sale of these carbon credits goes to fund various projects that aim to reduce or remove the damage these folks are causing. These projects are usually located in other places and many would not happen without funding from the carbon credits. It’s called ‘additionality’.
So why not take a huge pending defense contract and require that a portion of it be set aside for humanitarian or nation-building activities? Add a required soft power component to hard power projects. Even if the contractor is clueless about it all, it funds a bank of credits. Call them humanitarian credits. For every bomb that’s sold, a deposit into the bank is required to help offset the damage. Even if the bomb is never exploded, it is fueling a dangerous world that needs to be calmed and sustained, for example by USAID activities. And there is the soft power benefit. For every bullet, there is a blade of wheat sown. For every bomb, a tree, and so on.
Activities that seemed to cut against each other, to neutralize somewhat the overemphasis on hard power, could actually be complementary. Requiring a soft power component would benefit everyone and build a constituency… actually borrow a constituency already in place for national defense. Maybe the wheat farmers of Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming, and Nebraska would benefit more from PL-480 wheat purchases than from missile silos in their fields.
Rather than the enduring myth of a missile gap, perhaps a biblical passage could start to take root along with the spring wheat: They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.
Maybe he should just drown, or maybe an obliging shark might chew him up. Better that than the Zorne Police. The Correctors’ elite Inquisitors were renowned for their imaginative chastisements.
Ruffburn made for the open water, the choppiness causing him to snort and thrash. But the tide was coming in, so he felt himself being washed back to the other side of the harbor. He glimpsed a small group of men running that way to help him out of the water.
The good fellows must have sniffed the offer of reward.
Ruffburn gasped and choked as he cut the other way. The nearest boats were closing in. The fishers had their nets and tridents out. One overly enthusiastic type was whirling a weighted bola over his head.
Ruffburn ducked under water and forced his bony hide to dive as low as he could. Bolts zinged past him as he held his breath and chiseled deeper. Then he saw a shadow appear from above and spied a net sinking down. No avoiding that.
He darted sideways, but the lead-weighted net quickly closed around him like a crab claw on a minnow. The next moment, he felt his body being heaved up and trussed like a captured snapper.
Rough hands reached down and hauled him higher. As he spewed up seawater, he heard someone laugh.
A face loomed down at him: scarred, red, and ugly with half the right ear missing. Then it was replaced with another. This one wore a grin. Ruffburn took in the blond ponytail, pale ironic eyes, and the large gold earring in the left lobe.
“You could be useful, old mucker,” Ponytail said.
Ruffburn stared at him.
“Hmm . . . sure. Nowhere else to be.”
He turned his head, the only part of him that could move. There were three of them: the cheerful lazy-eyed blond, Half Ear, and a huge, lumpy fellow with a square black beard. The latter’s broad blue face seemed to be stitched together with intricate spiraling tattoos.
Ruffburn grinned at the three of them. These seemed like good lads.
“Where are we going?” he asked.
The blond grinned and looked at the giant with the tattoos. “How we doing, Stank?”
“They’re gaining. And the fucking Correctors have the entire harbor on lockdown.”
“Best get in the open water,” the blond said.
“Fishers’ll cut us off,” Half Ear grumbled.
“Not if you row harder, Scit.”
“I’m fucking pulling my arms out as it is.”
“Can you row?” The blond stared at Ruffburn.
“I’m an expert rower,” Ruffburn said.
“Good. You’ll need to be. Cut him loose, Stanky.”
“Why?” The tattooed monster glared at Ruffburn. “We can hand him over to the watch all trussed up nicely. They won’t mind none––save them the time.”
“We’re not handing this shithead over to the watch.”
“We’re not?” Both Tattoo Face and Half Ear gawped at the blond.
“You’re not,” Ruffburn added, deciding to chime in with some input.
They looked at him.
“Why?” Tattoo Face asked.
“Because this boy could be pretty useful, Stank. We’ve been watching him since he arrived in town, Slider and me. Got potential, so he has. Shame to waste that kind of talent to get a bit of reward coin.”
“I had that reward money spent in the Dozy-Eyed Mare tonight already,” Tattoo Face muttered.
“I’ll treat you,” Ruffburn said.
“Gobshite, little twat,” Half Ear said.
“Nice to meet you too.” Ruffburn grinned.
The blond ignored them as he sliced the net, allowing Ruffburn to spill out and untangle himself. He lay belly-down in the wet strakes before he shifted over and looked up at a clear blue sky. Gulls weaved and cried. Tattoo and Ear were working the oars.
Ruffburn saw soldiers on the harbor waving their spears. Others lined the far side. The docks seemed completely ringed by steel. Off to the left, three fishing vessels were clipping toward them to cut off their escape. The occupants seemed determined to seize the prisoner and get their reward. It seemed pretty hopeless, even when Ruffburn grabbed the third oar and helped.
The blond watched the fishers.
Half Ear scratched his good one. “We won’t make it, Trell. They’re closing in.”
Ponytail yawned. “I can see that, Scit. Maybe we’ll let the nearest one catch up.” He winked at Ruffburn.
“He’ll be on us in minutes,” the blond said and kicked Half Ear in the shin.
“Bollocks. What was that for?” Half Ear missed his stroke and crashed into Tattoo Face’s side. Ruffburn flailed and tried to cover.
The nearest ketch was quickly closing in. Ruffburn could see the greedy, filthy faces of the fishers as they leaned out from the prow. They carried nets and spears. One had a bow and was fumbling with an arrow.
The ketch crashed alongside, and the skipper yelled down. “Hand that tosser up, and you boys can bugger off. It’s not you we want.”
“Happy to help.” The blond grinned up at them. “Here lads, grab the prisoner.”
“What?” Ruffburn stared at the blond. “You said . . .”
“Sorry, mate. Plans changed.”
His companions stowed their oars and, at the blond’s command, grabbed Ruffburn by the ears. Tattoo Face heaved him up, and the skipper ordered two of his sailors to reach down.
“Help ’em, lads,” the blond said, and the other two clambered up behind Ruffburn.
“We’ve got this. Don’t need you boys up here.”
“Want to make sure the handoff is smooth,” Ponytail said, smiling as he turned and stared at Ruffburn.
“Piss off,” the skipper told the blond and turned away to yell at his men.
The words died in his throat as Ponytail rammed a curved blade into his right kidney. He pushed the dying skipper into the arms of one of the man’s startled mates. Then Tattoo Face and Half Ear leaped onto the rest of the crew, brandishing long knives, slicing and stabbing.
Ruffburn nodded, noting the efficiency of the attack. Excellent.
Within five minutes the ketch was bouncing, rudderless, with the sails hanging limp. Ponytail signaled, and the two others jumped about, readying the craft.
Ruffburn saw the other two ketches veer off, the occupants unsure about what had just transpired. He grinned with satisfaction as they slipped back toward the harbor entrance.
The blond grinned at him.
“I’m Trelaney. Welcome to the crew, old son. Time for an ale, hey lads?”
I hope you enjoyed that excerpt. Archer’s Moon will be available in three weeks. You can pre-order your copy here.
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I grew up watching John Wayne westerns and being taught Manifest Destiny—that the United States citizens of 1845 had a God-given mission to expand their borders all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Like many Americans, this was my early-education concerning Native Americans.
Buckskin Brigades by L. Ron Hubbard (1937)
When the Legends Die by Hal Borland (1963)
Laughing Boy by Oliver La Farge (1929)
After the King: Stories In Honor of J.R.R. Tolkien
New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color
Derelict
Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction: Volume Two
Intergalactic Rejects
