Jon Wlasiuk’s “Alternative History of Cleveland” goes much further back in time than the city’s founding. With evidence of human life in the region dating back more than 13,000 years, he explores how people have been interacting with the environment since then in his new book from Belt Publishing.
“That history is important because any community that is built is built necessarily upon an interaction with the environment,” Wlasiuk said, a resident of Slavic Village who teaches science and history at Michigan State University.
The Cuyahoga River, for instance, has been integral to life in the region, but Wlasiuk notes the river has also been polluted in more recent history despite its continued importance to the community.
“We ignore our relationship to the environment at our own peril,” he said. “It operates and is organized around a logic that is not of our own making, and we need to spend some time reconnecting with it.”
Wlasiuk points out ways that people do currently foster relationships with nature, from foragers for mushrooms in the summer to volunteers who assist injured birds that collide with windows in the city. One of his favorite spots to spend time in nature is a story of renewal during the last 40 some years: Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve.
“It is basically a toxic waste dump,” he said. “They created what were called confined disposal facilities … and it is a place now that harbors hundreds of species of migrating birds every year. You can see deer there, coyote.”
Hunting is another means for people to connect with the land around them in a way prior residents relied upon for their survival.
“I think hunting provides an avenue for many Americans as a source of recreation to kind of scratch that itch,” Wlasiuk said.
Another connection people today can make with the people who lived here 3,000 years ago is through arthritis. In the book, Wlasiuk cited a study of skeletons by anthropologists at Ohio State University that showed evidence of arthritis or degenerative joint disease. While the repetitive tasks required then are different than the typing injuries people develop now, they both relate to people performing daily tasks for their livelihoods.
In considering the region’s more recent history, humans have introduced problems for residents, such as air pollution stemming from oil refineries in Cleveland in the late 1800s. Despite the ways humans have harmed the environment, Wlasiuk said he sees reason for hopefulness.
“I hope that I emphasize that we are not constrained by those choices in the past. We all have the ability to chart a new path in our future,” he said.
