WELCOME OUTSIDE: 4 #wildernessculture Is the idea of "wilderness" a human construct? Did our current idea of "wilderness" exist in non-western cultures or even pre-industrial revolution? "The movement to set aside national parks and wilderness areas followed hard on the heels of the final Indian wars, in which the prior human inhabitants of these areas were rounded up and moved onto reservations. The myth of the wilderness as “virgin ” uninhabited land had always been especially cruel when seen from the perspective of the Indians who had once called that land home. Now they were forced to move elsewhere, with the result that tourists could safely enjoy the illusion that they were seeing their nation in its pristine, original state, in the new morning of God’s own creation. The removal of Indians to create an “uninhabited wilderness”—uninhabited as never before in the human history of the place—reminds us just how invented, just how constructed, the American wilderness really is. " from William Cronon's great essay "The Trouble With Wilderness " #warmspringsreservation #oregon #confederatetribesofwarmsprings #wasco #tenino #paiute
