When the US Army cleared all White settlers, drifters, and missionaries out of Washington Territory during the Yakima War (1855-1858), many of them ended up at Fort Colville, at Kettle Falls on the […]
The Real Old West
There is No Such Thing as Wilderness (Unless We Make it So)
In a land that was heavily populated and culturally farmed for 6000 years, only in the last 160 years, the time of European, American and Canadian colonization, has there been wild life. […]
Gardening With Fire (and Spiders, too)
I went for a long hike through the fire that fried the hills a couple weeks ago, to see how things are getting along, and was struck at how foreign fire has […]
Fire and Ants
Remember that fire? Grass burnt to the end of its story a couple weeks back? Only living thing left a few grasshoppers deep into the first stage of the grieving process and soon […]
Writing on Rock
Writing about the culture that has come out of aboriginal-settler relationships in what is sometimes called the Late West, is a bit like peeling a layer off an onion, and there’s another […]
The Other Side of the Coin, or Where Did All the Indians Go?
One thing about life in the Still Wild West is that there are always multiple stories. For example, yesterday I told a story about my vision of the land, which unites both aboriginal […]
Visions of Earth and Sky
Been thinking. Putting two and two together. Thinking, “Some things are so obvious that you can’t see them for a long, long time, and then you see them and you think, whoosh, […]
Fire in the Grass!
Bit of a grass fire here the other day. Young guy with a lighter. Wondered what it might do. Found out. Too many generations since there was fire here. Hard to remember to […]
Wild Orchards and Fenced Orchards
Like a pack of young red-tailed hawks circling over and over above a subdivision full of cats and mice, house finches, California Quail and small dogs, I’ve been worrying an idea: it’s […]
Water, Wealth, and Poverty
Here’s what water looks like up in the hills: Wild Saskatoons in Full Fruit, Scotch Creek, Washington Saskatoons were once a major human food source in this area. Notice how the fruit […]
Okanagan Okanogan 