We gathered in the sunshine on a sandy bank next to the wide swirling waters. I’d grown up with many occasions to stare at barges churning upstream on the Mississippi River, and the occasional motorboat bucking back and forth against what seemed like a deadly current. Now I was about to embark into those same waters in a canoe.
Was I worried? Not in the slightest. I was going out with the Quapaw Canoe Company. John Ruskey, the owner and canoe-master-in-charge at Quapaw, has been plying the waters of American rivers since he was a teenager. Now a bearded Mississippi River man, he was leading river tours at the 2010 Corks & Storks weekend at Tara Wildlife Resort in the Mississippi bottomlands. He always seemed supremely happy each time he left and returned from a paddle. It was the kind of confidence that reassured me.
Much to my surprise, the Mississippi River, even halfway across its breadth, inspired not only awe but jubilation. The swirling reflections and eddies at the surface hinted at things unseen below, but on top of the water our three canoes made progress upstream. The progress was due in no small part to the efforts of the young river guide who sat behind us at the steering end of our canoe. Baptized by a warm rain, we crossed the river and made landfall on a sandy island.
The Meaning of Quapaw
Quapaw is a Native American word that means “downstream people” and I also learned that day the meaning of the word Omaha: “upstream people.” John Ruskey runs Quapaw out of Clarksdale, Mississippi and Helena, Arkansas. With a brio that would make Mark Twain proud, John also runs an apprenticeship program for disadvantaged youth ages 12 to 16 from Clarksdale, mostly African Americans. He takes the boys, and more recently girls, into his employ to learn the trade of river guiding: how to steer and power a canoe, read the waters, conduct a water rescue, and even build a canoe.
As shown in a recent 10-minute video about "The Mighty Quapaw" and one of its star apprentices nicknamed “Popeye,” Ruskey's company may literally be saving the lives of these youth. The company is also a welcome breath of fresh air among nature enthusiasts, bringing a rising tide of interest and new found respect for the river in this battered and long neglected area of the United States.
The Natural Heritage of the Lower Mississippi River
America’s longest river has suffered 80 years worth of straightening and strangulation by flood control levees, with the result that the Mississippi Delta has lost about 25% of its original wetlands since the turn of the century (Batker, David et al. 2010. “Gaining Ground”, Earth Economics.org). Yet, out on the water the river is still wilderness. With only willows and cottonwoods on the horizon, the sandbar islands dotted with sandpipers feel timeless. Even the slow-moving barges seem part of a bygone era.
As many of the people in my party said that day on the river, the Mississippi is one of America’s most overlooked treasures. It is the Amazon in our midst, where alligators lurk. The Mississippi bottomlands are our rainforest, where cuckoos call, Roseate Spoonbills parade, wood ducks and bald eagles nest, and legions of white-tailed deer dwell.
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