The More We Take
The More We Take asks if we can overcome personal and national violence to love one another enough to then love — and save — the planet too. Answers come in small steps taken by regular folks trying to figure out themselves, their families, and their partners. It’s hard work, and dreams and visions abound. Three Nebraskans arrive together at a crossroad of history: the past decimation of the Lakota people and the current desecration of their stolen lands, a second tragedy playing out under their feet. Taking and then taking more seems to be the American way. They are outgunned, but something special starts to happen when Clete and Irene and Kathy get a little supernatural help from legendary Lakota chiefs and pioneering Indigenous women from the past who know about resistance and the power of narrative to fight oppression. Together, can they prevent this second fall?
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Reviews
“Kevin Curnin is an author of daring experimental prose, blending realism, fantasy, drama, philosophical novel, political fiction, and poetic style. The More We Take is a powerful story of the ongoing battle for the soul of the American Heartland, running dry in the wake of climate change, corporate greed and bureaucracy. As extraction drains the life-giving Ogallala Aquifer, an unlikely band of activists is joined by unexpected allies — Lakota spirits of the past. The band’s leader is Clete Bauer, a fifth-generation Nebraskan and a surveyor, but like K. in Kafka’s The Castle, he is surveying something deeper — his conscience. After the final page is turned, the question lingers: Is there hope, or will the Great Plains be forever lost to the highest bidder?””
Sufian Zhemukhov PhD
Award-winning storyteller and author, including Mass Religious Ritual and Intergroup Tolerance
“The More We Take is a beautifully crafted exploration of the human condition, intricately weaving themes of identity, resilience, and the transformative power of place. Through Clete Bauer’s compelling narrative, The More We Take delves into the rich, complex history of the American Heartland and how it draws and defines people across generations and cultures.”
Sean Desmond
Author, The Sophomores
Dr. Allison Barlow
“The More We Take is a gritty fairy tale for our time, with a new brand of Midwestern heroes taking on corporate greed, climate change, and a history of racism against Indigenous Peoples. Curnin’s carefully woven research supercharges out conscience and consciousness. Will the powers of mysticism and Indigenous knowledge keepers prevail against existential threat? This inventive and fearless novel is a journey through old and new truths toward a horizon of cosmic optimism. “
Executive Director, Johns Hopkins University Center for Indigenous Health
Resources
Far more research went into The More We Take than ever reached the page. Below are a few links with information about topics that I needed to learn a lot more about. I am not an expert in any of these areas, just grateful that experts are out there for all of us to learn from. It’s hard to love what you don’t understand. Facts matter, history guides, and technology — used wisely — can help. The same is true for the law, but as history teaches, too often technology and laws perpetuate inequities, including genocide and climate change.
Center Pivot Irrigation
Chemigation
Ogallala Aquifer
Books that informed & inspired The More We Take
Fiction
- Jane Smiley, A Thousand Acres
- Louise Erdrich, The Night Watchman
- M. Scott Momaday, House Made of Dawn
- Sebastian Barry, Days Without End
Drama
- Indians, Arthur Kopit
Non-Fiction
- Witness: A Hunkpapha Historian’s Strong-Hearted Song of the Lakotas, Josephine Waggoner (Emily Levine, ed.)
- Red Cloud’s War, Library of Congress, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2
- Ian Frazier, On the Rez and Great Plains
- Back to the Blanket, Kimberly G. Weiser
- Running Out, Lucas Bessire
- The Ogallala Road, Julene Bair
- Touch the Earth, T.C. McLuhan, ed.
- Making a Difference, Ada Deer & Theda Perdue
- My People the Sioux, Luther Standing Bear
- Groundwater Exploitation in the High Plains, Kromm & White, eds.
- You Never Miss the Water Till … (The Ogallala Story), M.W. Bittinger & E.B. Green
- Ogallala: Water for a Dry Land, John Opie
- Trail to Wounded Knee, Herman J. Viola
- The Plains Indians: Artists of Earth and Sky, Gaylord Torrence, et al.
Kevin Curnin 