• About

stevewiegenstein

~ News, announcements, events, and ruminations about my books, including Slant of Light, This Old World, The Language of Trees, and Scattered Lights, and about creativity, fiction, Missouri, the Ozarks, and anything else that strikes my fancy

stevewiegenstein

Tag Archives: eccentrics

An Ozarks Eccentric Passes

22 Tuesday Aug 2017

Posted by stevewiegenstein in Missouri, Ozarks, People, Rural

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

eccentrics, Salem, Wana Dubie

I’ve written about Chief Wana Dubie before, but this weekend came the news that he had died. You’re only an eccentric until everybody comes round to your way of thinking, and the gradual spread of legalized marijuana around the country might presage the movement of the Chief from crank to prophet.

A scholarly presentation I once attended made the point that the Ozarks’ “mind your own business” mentality allows truly scary people to flourish in its hollows. Witness the neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups that set up quarters in the region from time to time. But minding one’s own business also leaves room for the colorful personalities to inhabit. I prefer a lawn that has some dandelions to one that’s a uniform green.

Advertisement

Favorite Ozarks People – 9

28 Friday Aug 2015

Posted by stevewiegenstein in Ozarks, People

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

eccentrics, Linn, Ozarks, Salem, Wana Dubie

Chief Wana Dubie

Chief Wana Dubie

I’ve never met Chief Wana Dubie, born Joseph Bickell, but I appreciate his type. The chief first caught my attention in a feature story in the Linn Unterrified Democrat in the 1990s, when he seceded from the United States and declared his property to be a reservation of the Santimaw Indian tribe, which no one had ever heard of. As you can guess from his adopted name, he is a marijuana legalization activist who served five years at Algoa for his stance, having been busted after his secession for growing 135 plants in his front yard.

The Ozarks have long been home to outcasts and eccentrics of every variety, and that’s part of what makes it such an interesting place. Wana Dubie has even had a movie made about his “war” with the Establishment, and has run for office several times, including president in 1992, Missouri House of Representatives in 2006 (receiving 556 votes, for 3rd place), and currently U.S. Senate. With a name like his, you can understand why he is playing up the “Dubie vs. Blunt” aspect of this year’s campaign. The chief maintains a Facebook page where he reports that he recently smoked his first legal marijuana, on Pike’s Peak in Colorado. The experience was not completely satisfactory; as he writes, “Pot may be legal in Colorado, but there are no hippies. It’s business as usual at the marijuana shops, big business. They were quite busy with people from all walks of life. Old people, white people, rich people and others. But you didn’t see any hippies like me. I saw only one tie dye shirt the whole time I was there!”

Odd characters may seem like the weeds in our tidy garden of life, but as Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote, “What would the world be, once bereft / of wet and of wildness? Let them be left, / O let them be left, wildness and wet; / Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.”

Blogroll

  • Blank Slate Press
  • Cornerpost Press
  • John Gibson – Missouri Ozarker
  • John Mort's Blog
  • Kaitlyn McConnell's Ozarks Alive
  • Larry Wood's Ozark history blog
  • Lens & Pen Press blog
  • Missouri Writers' Guild
  • My website
  • Ozarks Law and Economy
  • River Hills Traveler
  • Sarah Johnson's Historical Fiction Blog
  • Show Me Oz
  • Show Me Progress
  • The Course of Our Seasons
  • The Opulent Opossum
  • The Outside Bend
  • Vincent Anderson's Ozark history blog
  • WordPress.com News

My Facebook page

My Facebook page

My Twitter feed

  • RT @JBDailyAuthor: Launching today, a Public Defender Turned Novelist @reynagentin and Award-Winning Short Stories @SWiegenstein. Great int… 8 hours ago
  • RT @JBDailyAuthor: Art and Design Inspired one novel @susansetkin and A Path Darkened by Tragedy @barbararubinauthor, another. Listen today… 1 day ago
  • Women can't show their arms on the Missouri House floor, but the legislature is perpetually showing its ass. npr.org/2023/01/13/114… 1 week ago
  • Saints preserve me from ever reaching a point so low that I have to blurb my own book. twitter.com/ammarmufasa/st… 1 week ago
  • I read a book a while back about the Republican House leadership struggle. It was called "Lord of the Flies." 3 weeks ago
Follow @swiegenstein

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Follow me on social media!

  • View stevewiegensteinauthor’s profile on Facebook
  • View @swiegenstein’s profile on Twitter

Slant of Light Facebook page

Slant of Light Facebook page

Blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • stevewiegenstein
    • Join 284 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • stevewiegenstein
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...