Chippewa Lake: A Community in Search of an Identity

10. Transformation and Contested Identities

165 CHAPTER 10 Transformation and Contested identities Anytime a group of people get together to talk, it’s a gain. Nowadays, people are too busy making a living to be social. —DUke MeTCaLF, 2004 at least two transformations are occurring in Chippewa Township. The first is the transformation from farm community to commuter community, a process that has been occurring for many years, but which is culminating in the loss of family farms and the subsequent outmigration of many young families seeking jobs or other opportunities “off the farm.” Those who remain are the descendants of longtime residents, tied economically and emotionally to the history of the community. Second, and simultaneously, there is an influx of residents who are seeking both the rural ambiance and the lake environment as an ideal retirement community. even though the recent arrivals and the descendants of the earliest settlers share the same dream—a small rural community surrounded by natural beauty—their definitions of community and natural beauty differ greatly. while the rural families who remain here do so because of their historic and kinship ties to the land and a “remembered” community, those who come here from the cities are seeking something that they feel they have missed: the idyllic peacefulness of the countryside. Sonya Salamon describes this process in illinois, where newcomers seek a “rural ambience, peace, safety, good schools, and nature rather than the unique identity and qualities of a particular small town so precious to oldtimers .”1 Newcomers have not been a part of the history of the community, 166| Chapter 10 and they are not aware of the historical or social milieu in which the community has been shaped. here we will look at the intersection of these divergent ideas of community. iDea OF COMMUNiTY ReViSiTeD Since we are reevaluating the idea of community as it is perceived by newcomers and old-timers, it will benefit us to review some of the characteristics of community outlined by Sonya Salamon.2 First, over the years, communities develop shared expectations of behavior that are reinforced by ritual discourse—rites of passage and social rewards, such as prestige and respect, as well as negative sanctions, such as gossip. Second, members of a community mobilize to achieve group goals or complete projects that will benefit the entire community—this includes mutual assistance in times of hardship. Third is a sense of identity that results from the shared values and norms whereby individuals characterize themselves as members of a community. Membership is linked with kinship ties in the community , but also with the multi-stranded social relationships that develop over years of interaction. Fourth is a sense of egalitarianism. egalitarianism does not mean equality , but rather a sense that everyone is more or less like everyone else, and shares similar economic conditions and values. There are sanctions against demonstrating wealth ostentatiously, and an implicit understanding that those who have more will contribute more to the community. Comparing the farming community, the village, and the lake communities allows us to examine in what ways these characteristics have persisted over time, and how they have evolved. we will look at the intersection of these three groups in order to understand how they interact and how they identify the important issues and values that define community. Township The ideal vision of a homogeneous community has always been exaggerated and probably never existed, even when the community was newly settled and the above values were taking shape. we have seen that early families came from a variety of backgrounds, from european homesteaders to loggers , mill owners, and doctors. Yet, it is very likely that all of these families, Transformation and Contested Identities| 167 despite their differing situations, shared a worldview that defined them as members of a shared community. Today, the descendants of these early settlers are even less homogeneous than their ancestors. Yet, i found that most of these descendants also shared a vision of community that mirrored that of their predecessors. Janet Fitchen, in her book Endangered Spaces, Enduring Places, captures the sentiment of many of the people i interviewed for this project. according to Fitchen, “The space as a whole, as well as each individual parcel of land, has a social history known and referenced by local people, and the very term ‘locals’ or ‘local people’ is a way of affixing people in the relationship to space.”3 This is very true in...