It is the task of every culture to sustain itself, and it is the task of every culture to provide the tools to its people, that they can use to sustain themselves after the […]
Unsustainability in the American North West
What is a Village?
I was paddling around on this old molten glacier, when I realized that the traditional Syilx village on this site was not just the flat along the Vaseaux Lake shore at the […]
The Mystery of Buffalo Eddy
One of the significant and unique forms of rock art at Buffalo Eddy on the Snake River looks like this: A human figure with a triangular body. It looks like a buffalo […]
Nez Perce Mystery of LIght
Clouds sailing across the Palouse do this. Above Chief Timothy’s Camp That’s not a hill of coal. It’s not burnt. It’s just a way in which the sky and the land are […]
Mother Earth
Mother Earth has often been equated with womanly power. That’s not really it. Here she is above the Clearwater River in Nez Perce Country, lying on her back, with her arms outstretched […]
Matisse and the Nez Perce
Reading the sky, I’ve just realized, is not a matter of translating the dramatic movements of clouds and light into words or ideas, but reacting to them in the manner of responding […]
History and (Dis)Respect on the Clearwater River
Here’s Curtis’s 1910 photo of a Nez Perce dugout canoe. This was the low point in Nez Perce life. Over the previous century, they had lost over 90% of the territory, much of […]
Summer Offering at Peshastin
A young bird (or an ancient one) … … needs to eat (or your soul does.) It’s the paying of attention that is the gift.
The Power of Two
This is a land that divides. Or is that upon this land people divide? Here we are on the Colville Indian Reservation, looking south across the Columbia River, as it begins to flow […]
Snake Leaves the Snake
To the Nimiipu, water was the strongest spiritual substance. Note that the snake that leaves the Snake River here at Buffalo Eddy, never arrives at the (older) shamanic figure. That’s because it’s […]
Okanagan Okanogan 