Transmitting from the Mojave Wilderness in Joshua Tree, California, now is the time for Desert Oracle Radio, the voice of the desert.

Night has fallen on the desert, the eternal desert.

Eternal to us, anyway.

Wet years and dry years, cold years and fire years.

But it was desert when we were born, and it shall be desert when we are buried next to the

septic tank.

Go back about 8,000 years in the American desert still had a lot more water and a lot more green stuff in general.

Wetlands, year-round rivers, denser vegetation, more oaks in the valleys, more pines in the

foothills and mountains.

The place I call home today has been the domain of a dozen cultures and political systems over the past 500 years.

Early peoples defeated earlier peoples nations moved according to strength and resources, and eventually the hottest and driest parts of the desert southwest became home to the smaller tribes pushed out of greener pastures.

Shoshone and Paiute people took root in the arid Great

Basin, for instance. Civilizations like the Ho-Hocum that grew up around the Salt and Gila rivers

broke down and dispersed once the climate changed and the water dried up.

The Puebloes of today's New Mexico were the city-state centers of power for some 500 years

before the Spaniards showed up on horseback and 15 and 98.

The Russians and the French and the English and the people from the weird, violent new nation of America

all claim their own chunks of the West.

Scirmishes and wars were fought whenever beneficial to the business at hand, which is business generally.

Spain became Mexico. Mexico gave way to the California ranchos to the west.

And chose to the west. And finally, the gold rush gave the United States a reason to take it all, everything from Texas to the Pacific Ocean.

So it goes.

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