20 Comments

I’ve never looked at the Y2Y and reservation maps alongside each other like that. It’s such a great illustration, especially when thinking about previous connectedness before colonization.

Great piece, Chris. Land back feels like just a start …

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Thanks, Nia. I hadn't either but it seems so obvious, doesn't it? And yes, the pre-colonial connectivity across the continent, which some may argue is achieved via the internet and I would argue it absolutely ISN'T the same at all.

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Oh my god no it isn’t. Sometimes online community is all we have access to (and often it provides support for people in a marginalized or difficult situation) but it’s not the same. Plus (I can go on about this for a veeeeerrrrry long time) online anything has externalities that physical communities are forced to suffer from. Like, say, a Google data center that gets its power from a dam in Washington that has destroyed a salmon run.

We can find a lot online, but can’t escape to it, call it good, and expect to repair our relationships with life.

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Thanks. Of course, I missed your perspective in my old white lady mind. Doug Peacock is my friend and I’m almost always in agreement with his ideas. Your piece adds another important layer to this one. I’m shaking my head at my own blindness. This is so much bigger than I knew. Just thanks. Looking forward to meeting you in YNP a couple weeks.

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Thanks, Maggie! I expect to have Doug's new book in my hands in this coming week. Same publisher as Chadwick's last few books in fact, Patagonia. They do a great job.

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Me too! I’m excited to read his words again. I tear up every time we meet… something about him just hits me that way. I’ve always felt lucky to know him. He said Patagonia was good to work with, then told me a funny story about how difficult he is to work with. Ha. I’m hoping to see Chadwick at Elk River Books soon.

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Thanks for this, Chris. Your comparison of protected areas (NPs and Wilderness areas) and reservations is revelatory. You offer a coherent perspective to add to some of my own, less coherent, but related thoughts: How/why we value places/environments/people/ecosystems/etc and how we treat/mistreat them - in the sense that we designate areas for protection/exaltation of things/people, and other areas to relegate/desecrate things/people (i.e. are landfills any less sacred than wilderness??). Also, the land back concept is one I've only recently become aware of, but seems so right on so many levels. Thanks for the links to other articles about it, and for this essay.

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Thank you, and thank you for thinking about this stuff.

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Thanks as always for sharing your writing. I’ve been drawn to land back for a while now but I’m having a lot of trouble figuring out how to actually contribute to the goal, aside from stuff like joining protests. I’m trying to just learn as much as I can right now, so I’ll also check out the articles you linked. Land Back seems to address so many social and environmental wrongs - like you said, it’s all linked. Thanks again for posting.

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Thank you, Chrissy. I don't have many answers to all the landback questions either, it just seems critical to me and I'm really into it.

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Same same. I'm gonna keep learning.

(Also, total tangent - my sister got me One-Sentence Journal for Christmas! Can't wait to read it!!)

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Many years ago on one of my first hiking trips in the Canadian Rockies, my husband and I encountered our first wildlife crossing while driving in Banff National Park. Having never seen the equivalent in the U.S. my first reaction was "This is great! What a wonderful thing!" But then, of course it dawned on me -- this is actually really fucked up. It was one of those moments where we are bedazzled by ingenious, amazing solutions (look at what humans can do if we put our minds to it!) to problems we created in the first place. It's ridiculous, but we fall for it all the time.

I'm tired of it. I'm tired of the shell game. It's easy for me to say "Let's give it back. All of it. To the people, to the wildlife." But what does that really mean for me to say that? I, sitting here in a city in the Midwest, am always tied up in knots about what to do about any of this. So I sit and cry. It's pathetic. I know feeling hopeless helps nothing. But I'm always overcome by paralysis.

Anyway, thanks for putting me in this position. Seriously. I need to work my way out of it, and reading your writing always nudges me--toward what isn't always clear, but I know it's in the right direction.

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Thank you, Debbie.

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We do have wildlife crossings in the U.S., from overpasses for deer to underpasses (tunnels) for toads etc. It IS sad that this is necessary, but we work with what we can in the present moment.

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Hi Chris,

Thank you for this illuminating piece. I must confess my ignorance. There is so much of which I have been unaware. For example, risking death if venturing off of the reservation. I hope that you and other indigenous people are able to achieve the justice and the compensation that you seek.

Sincerely,

Melissa

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Thank you, Melissa.

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Great piece. Thanks for the visuals, the blindingly obvious parallels, and the info on Land Back. If only Interior and stodgy conservation orgs could be restructured from the ground up to reflect the wisdom and ethics that returned the Bison Range to tribal hands.

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Thank you, Jenny. If only, indeed.

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Yay! I also loved the David Treuer piece. The Y2Y maps are great! Love all these points.

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blood quantum...don't even get me started on that. What if everyone had to have a card showing their pedigree? I did write a poem about it. Thank your for continuing to bring things into the light of a larger circle.

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