JOHAN (JOHN) F. DORMAAR (1930 - 2011)

Lethbridge, Alberta, is a major city a little over a hundred miles north of Valier, where I am.  Between there and here is a row of small volcanic mountains, aligned along the border and called the Sweetgrass Hills.  That’s a misnomer: sweetgrass likes low swampy burned over places -- it is sweet pine that is meant.  The smell is very similar and so are the names in Blackfeet.  Some know it as balsam pine.  

Aside from being a good place to look for incense, the Sweetgrass Hills (if you don’t call them that you won’t be able to google them) were a favorite place among the Blackfeet for “getting a vision.”  One can still find the “vision beds” dream seekers made to mark the spots where they lay down to sing and fast until their consciousness touched something sacred.  Some want to de-sacralize the land, so they say,  “Oh, well, then show us the structures that prove anyone ever worshipped here!”  They are shocked to see photos of vision beds taken by Dr. Dormaar or possibly his friend Arlo Skari, who lives on this side of the Sweetgrass Hills.  It takes a lot of walking to find them, but they exist.

Hills on plains are always holy, special locations where the spirit is intensified, but  these particular hills are also “refugia,” meaning that they provided refuge for many species of plants and animals -- they say even earthworms -- that were otherwise scoured away by the repeated walls of ice called glaciers that came down from the north.  Even now they are refuges in summer when the prairie simmers in heat.  They are water-sheds that re-charge the ground so that the wells of the ranchers fill up.

Yet Johan Dormaar’s work was quite practical, the study of the impact of range grazing in a highly specific, technical and internationally useful way: not tirades against this or that practice, but developing techniques to study soil organic matter and the restoration of carbon -- matters of life and death on this planet.  He traced soil phosphorus, both organic and inorganic, as it cycled through the seasons.  

Since I belong to a number of academic listservs that study both environmental science and the philosophy about it, I’m aware of a huge body of literature of “place,” wherein people look at how land and people shape each other over time.  Nomadism may be part of this if the wandering is a pattern-cycle of return.  The ideas themselves can become a bit unmoored if they are not anchored by real experience on the land.  This Dr. Dormaar knew.  He walked the land, he got down on his knees in curiosity and gratitude.  After fifty years of scouting, the Boy Scout organization gave him their Silver Acorn Award.

The world was his vision, but he regarded it from Lethbridge, specifically the University of Lethbridge, a stunning “campus” built across the mouth of a coulee with a space at the bottom to keep it from becoming a dam.  Some say it was inspired by a striking long trestle bridge across another coulee,  marvel of early engineering.  The school has a concentration in the study of the people called in Canada Blackfoot rather than Blackfeet. 

I was so sad to hear of this death.  I corresponded with Dr. Dormaar a bit and sent him my story about a dream bed in the Sweetgrass Hills being put to use by a modern Blackfeet boy.  I was looking forward to meeting him some day.  He’s one of the extraordinary people who often live close to us and make major contributions to human thought, but so quietly that we don’t know about it.  This link is to what his fellow scientists noted about him:

http://www.science.ca/scientists/scientistprofile.php?pID=286&pg=3

I can’t go to the memorial service because of the border, since my passport has expired.  The world has become a more suspicious and narrow place recently.  I hope the cycle moves on through all this and back to an open border again.  In the meantime, I can offer these thoughts in a borderless way.  I smudge a bit of sweetgrass as I write.

Dr. Johan F. Dormaar Death Announcement

It is with sadness that we announce the death of  Johan Frederik Dormaar Ph.D., D.Sc.h.c., FCSSS of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.  His body reached its highest level of entropy on Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at the age of 80 years.

Left to cherish his memory are his beloved children; Steve (Karen), Paul (Louise), Judi (Richard), grandchildren; Amanda, Andy, Jamie, Janelle, Nicholas, Peter, Sean, great grandchildren; Adrian, Logan, and brother Dr. Nicholas Dormaar.

Johan was born in a military hospital in Indonesia on February 16, 1930 under German occupation in the Netherlands.  He came to Canada in 1953 and to Lethbridge in 1962 where he lived the rest of his life.  His career was spent at the Agriculture Canada Research Centre.  As well, he was involved with the Archaeological societies of Lethbridge and Alberta, the Historical Society of Lethbridge, the Chinook Outdoor Club, Alpine Club of Canada, Glacier Mountaineering Society, Scouts Canada, the Lethbridge Science Fair and the Alberta Wildflower Survey.  He had deep pedological, geological and historical interest in the landscape of Southern Alberta with all its varieties from prairie to rivers, canyons, ridges and mountains.  With this background he was able to assist the Geoarchaeology and Geomorphology field courses at the University of Lethbridge.  Johan volunteered and spoke to many organizations and groups throughout the years.  When asked why he worked and volunteered so tirelessly in his retirement, Johan would state that when you retire, you get to spend your time doing all the things you love to do.  

Johan’s family would like to invite each and every one of you to his “Celebration of Life”.   This is taking place from 6-9pm on Saturday, February 19, 2011 at the Galt Museum, 502-1^st St. S., Lethbridge.  Open mic will begin at 6:30pm.  Please come and share your memories and enjoy all the people whose lives Johan touched.

For those of you who would like to contact the family here are our email addresses:

Steven Dormaar – sdormaar@gmail.com

Paul Dormaar – dormaar@shaw.ca

Judi Dormaar - jdormaar@telus.net