I recently watched Ken Burns documentary series The West. I had always thought of America’s expansion West as an idyllic thirst for more independence. I hadn’t grasped the scale of slaughter and exploitation - first to Native Americans and second to the American Bison - required in satisfying that thirst. My sense of pioneering pride was…
I recently watched Ken Burns documentary series The West. I had always thought of America’s expansion West as an idyllic thirst for more independence. I hadn’t grasped the scale of slaughter and exploitation - first to Native Americans and second to the American Bison - required in satisfying that thirst. My sense of pioneering pride was replaced with the shame of greed. Where we are collectively in our relationship with natural resources and climate control has deep roots and like a colony of Aspen, if the roots of one tree are infected it spreads to the whole.
Thanks, John, for *your* reflections. I did not know about the Ken Burns series. I've been reading books by Indigenous historians and scholars like Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Nick Estes and I also tune in to Nick's 'The Red Nation' podcast. It can be raw, but offers a radically different perspective than I grew up with. I love your Aspen colony metaphor. You are spot on. I hope to draw on themes of connectedness throughout the coming months. Maybe starting this spring as I ease in to Cartography and Tobler's First Law of Geography: "everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things."
Your words matter a lot. Thanks for taking the time to read and to comment. 🙏🏼
I recently watched Ken Burns documentary series The West. I had always thought of America’s expansion West as an idyllic thirst for more independence. I hadn’t grasped the scale of slaughter and exploitation - first to Native Americans and second to the American Bison - required in satisfying that thirst. My sense of pioneering pride was replaced with the shame of greed. Where we are collectively in our relationship with natural resources and climate control has deep roots and like a colony of Aspen, if the roots of one tree are infected it spreads to the whole.
Thanks for your reflections Brad.
Thanks, John, for *your* reflections. I did not know about the Ken Burns series. I've been reading books by Indigenous historians and scholars like Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Nick Estes and I also tune in to Nick's 'The Red Nation' podcast. It can be raw, but offers a radically different perspective than I grew up with. I love your Aspen colony metaphor. You are spot on. I hope to draw on themes of connectedness throughout the coming months. Maybe starting this spring as I ease in to Cartography and Tobler's First Law of Geography: "everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things."
Your words matter a lot. Thanks for taking the time to read and to comment. 🙏🏼