What is “behind”? What is the “back country”? What is it back of? What is it behind? “Behind the valley” perhaps? The View from Central on the Keremeous River But that doesn’t […]
The Colonial Back Country
Decolonizing the “Rivers” of Cascadia
This flow… … is mapped as “The Okanogan River.” It is a colonial term, yet certainly not the most egregious. I live near the top of its headwaters. Head of the Lake […]
The Invitations of Helen Humphreys’ Beautiful and Troubling Book “The River”
It’s a beautiful book. Designed, by the looks of it, to be sold as a gift shop memento, Victorian perhaps. Note the trompe d’oeil of the bug on the cover, which takes […]
McLaughlin’s Canyon Illustrates the Racist Basics Behind Claims of Climate Change
Climate change, eh. Here at McLaughlin’s Canyon on the Old Trail to the North, the water that undercut the canyon wall is long gone, as is the fire that took the firs […]
God on the Fly at Buffalo Eddy
I have been asked how pre-modern experience … Buffalo Eddy can relate to post-modern experience. Disturbed Doe It would be a pleasure to just be able to say, hey, they are the […]
Maps Written on the Land
Let’s say you are along the river and want to make an important map. To learn how, why not go to Buffalo Eddy on the Snake? There are patterns here. Buffalo Eddy […]
Flowing in Place
Isn’t naming great. Why don’t we call the homeland of the Wanapum, the “Wana” “Pu’um”, the water people, a river, and be done with it. But there’s a catch to this, because […]
Review of Wong and Wah’s Beholden: a poem as long as a river
Let’s talk about poetry … or, rather, let’s behold some creative writing … …in place: Cougar Point, Cascadia Creative writing is a cultural practice, engaged in by a group of practitioners […]
Human Cartography
Because the mountains recede in waves… … in the Similkameen… … when they don’t, they stand out, even when they are within this language of bodies. Note the cultural markings on this […]
Every Sentence is a Map of the World
The plum in blossom… … becomes music in the wind. The Síya? in blossom … … is the music of bushes cast across a scree slope. West of Olalla The break in […]
