Sallie Scheufler (b. 1988) addresses climate change caused by settlers in their installation NO MAN’S LAND. The letters in the text are formed by grouping individual god’s eyes made from woven wheat stalks. The wheat in NO MAN’S LAND alludes to the Dust Bowl—a catastrophic decade-long event that was driven by mass mono-cropping of wheat in the Great Plains. Scheufler’s family settled in the Great Plains in the 1880s, and their four grandparents survived this event as children in the 1930s. The family continues to farm today. By reflecting on their family’s relationship to the land, Scheufler poses challenging questions about privilege, accountability, and class.
In my research, I kept encountering references to the Great Plains as “No Man’s Land,” and the phrase really stuck with me. To me, it suggests a desolate landscape but not one devoid of life. When you break it down, the phrase speaks to ownership. The commodification of land—the notion that land is something to be bought and sold rather than cared for—is inherently colonial and detrimental to both the land and the beings (including humans) that inhabit it.
It was crucial for me to acknowledge the Indigenous peoples who were forcibly removed from this land, as well as the slaughter of their primary food source, the buffalo. The Great Plains are home to nomadic peoples who view the land as a relative to be cared for, not as a commodity to be exchanged. The land my family farms is Comanche, Kiowa, Osage, Pawnee, Ute, and Kaw/Kansa.
No Man’s Land
No Land is Man’s
Nomad’s Land
—Sallie Scheufler
In my research, I kept encountering references to the Great Plains as “No Man’s Land,” and the phrase really stuck with me. To me, it suggests a desolate landscape but not one devoid of life. When you break it down, the phrase speaks to ownership. The commodification of land—the notion that land is something to be bought and sold rather than cared for—is inherently colonial and detrimental to both the land and the beings (including humans) that inhabit it.
It was crucial for me to acknowledge the Indigenous peoples who were forcibly removed from this land, as well as the slaughter of their primary food source, the buffalo. The Great Plains are home to nomadic peoples who view the land as a relative to be cared for, not as a commodity to be exchanged. The land my family farms is Comanche, Kiowa, Osage, Pawnee, Ute, and Kaw/Kansa.
No Man’s Land
No Land is Man’s
Nomad’s Land
—Sallie Scheufler
