The grass is a cultural being. So are cat tails and so is poetry. Talk about a rhyme scheme, eh! First, the grass. Not only does it have its own culture, but […]
Native Wetland Apples in Horizontal Light
The Pacific Crab loves rain, swamps and wet feet. She is the forest rain that has drawn wood and air to herself after flowing through them and picking up their energy on the […]
Only a German, Eh?
I’d like to show you some photos today, from a country that does not exist. This is the German colony that formed in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia after the First […]
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 […]
Oh, Canada, How About a New Flag for Everyone?
Here’s Canada’s tree, thriving in Germany. Acer Rubrum herself. Here she is, flappable. Here’s our maple leaves in the mountains of the West. This is the Rocky Mountain Maple. Acer Glabrun. Sometimes […]
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 […]
Of Universities and Love
Universities are the place in which Western societies educate their youth, create knowledge, and pass on social values. I wonder why that doesn’t happen here: The Salmon River Enters the Snake It […]
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 […]
Okanagan Okanogan 