Unsung Hero of The Farm Community and Plenty International
Mark Madrid, a Native American man, was a founding member of The Farm, an intentional community in Middle Tennessee, established in 1971 on the principles of nonviolence and respect for the earth.
(See the full size image below)
In the early days of The Farm, there were over 200 people camping on the land, building their village. Mark was doing a overnight vigil at the gate, which was at that time a stout rope across the road.
In the middle of the night a group of armed men approached the rope. Mark stood in front asking what they wanted. They told him to move aside, they were coming in. Mark told them calmly they would have to run him over first and stood his ground.
The men backed the truck up and came at him fast. When he did not move, they turned the truck around and left.
Some of those same men came back to teach the members skills that were needed to survive on the land.
Note, In the image, the viewer will notice Mark has a wooden peg as a prosthesis, he had lost his right leg in a vehicle accident.
Mark worked for many years as the director of the community’s welcome center, its head of security, and as the principle interface of daily neighbor relations. He served at a time when the community had up to 10,000 people a year pass through its gates as short-term visitors.
He went on to serve as one of the early volunteers with The Farm’s relief and development organization, Plenty International. He was the lead ambulance driver and EMT in support of Native Americans on The Longest Walk (1978), a march from the west coast to Washington DC as a call to honor broken treaties and to call attention to the plight of native peoples in their home country.
