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 […]
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 […]
Global Cooling Part 4: Waste Water Wasted
To conclude some thoughts about global warming being the process of human cultural estrangement from water, these words today. They began here, then flowed here and here, with a stopover here, in […]
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 […]
The Wild West Today
The wild west is not so far away here in the valley, but then this was the last of it. Its story is the only story in town. Here it is in […]
Farming Crime
I’d like to briefly continue the discussion about the agricultural legacy of the story of Father Charles Pandosy in the Okanagan Valley. The story started with a discussion of his white-washed métis culture. […]
White Washing Water
Talk about water, which is a large part of the talk in a near-desert environment, is also talk about people and grass. Here’s a story about that. Last of Washington’s Grass The […]
What’s the Matter with Fruity Sex?
There are many ways to read gene sequences, but only one way to store them. It entails giving them away. Here, for example, is a functioning spontaneous gene bank: Plums Gone Wild […]
Okanagan Okanogan 