It’s not just that winter is coming. Its first breath is as much winter as its depths. We remember ourselves in it. We rise up out of the grass.
Winter is Here
Teaching Gravity in a 21st Century Classroom
First, two pictures of gravity. I don’t mean the effects of gravity. I mean gravity. Gravity is not mathematics. It’s either here in these pine cones or it doesn’t exist. Water carries […]
It’s Mango Time!
We love you, stag horn sumac. But we love you, smooth sumac more. Oh, Staghorn, you come from Virginia. You knew Hiawatha in your youth. But smooth sumac, daughter […]
When Trees are Weeds
This is an old growth forest full of weeds. The sage brush is the weed … … not the bunch grass. Sagebrush is an indigenous plant, but it comes in a bit thickly when […]
What We Need to Talk About, Darling
The land I live on was an island that crashed into a continent. It buckled and smashed and was pushed up into the air by the collision. The old seabeds of its […]
Who is a Person?
Oh, here’s a person: Your writer says hi. When you get a whole bunch of persons together you get people. Like this: Plateau Men Fishing, Celilo Falls on the Columbia River, c.1950 […]
Creating a Science That Includes the Earth
Science is a powerful tool. It’s built on a couple of foundational principles: 1. there is someone watching, 2. only what that person sees can be studied, and 3. only what is […]
The Illahie: the Braided Country
Here’s an old word: illahie. Here’s what it looks like to me today: Well, that’s a teeny tiny bit of it. If you look it up in a Chinook Wawa dictionary… …the […]
The Music of Bunch Grass
These are our old growth forests in the Syilx Illahie. Our sequoias, redwoods, Douglas firs, sitka spruce and western red cedars are blue-bunched wheat grass here. Forget the blue blades at the […]
Wetland Renewal and You
Have you loved your wetland today? This one is three years old. Just three! Forget the doom and gloom for a moment. The earth has a capacity for renewal. This wetland is […]
Okanagan Okanogan 