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 […]
Matisse and the Nez Perce
When Quail Leave the Grass, It’s Time to Party
Ah, the sweet berries of June! This is the best year in a decade for saskatoons. They are so sweet. And so juicy. Even the ground birds have left the cover of […]
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 […]
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 […]
This is How You Make Bread and French Fries
First, you take the shrub steppe of the lower Snake River. Then you add petroleum-based fertilizer (white tank) and water (six deep well pumps). This combination makes bread. It’ll be seeded again in […]
Reports of Father Pandosy Starving in 1846 Are Greatly Exaggerated
He’s the Boy from Marseilles, the French Oblate Priest who came on the Oregon Trail and started two of the first missions in Washington Territory, singing the whole time. His first was […]
Where the Heart is Home: A Celebration
I love this land. I guess you know that. I am this land. Other writers might talk about identity and ego and alter ego and personality, but I just want to take you […]
Beautify The World for 2,000 People For $20
Orchard with flax in the ‘hood. Orchard without flax (3 kilometres down the road.) Currently, flax fibre goes for $10 for every 50 grams. Plus, once you’ve made a set of wedding […]
Time Travel Gone Bad
Petrochemical agriculture is a program that uses statistical risk assessment to balance the need of farmers to extract a capital profit out of farming commensurate with the profit to be extracted from […]
The Problem With Petrochemical Agriculture
It’s too easy to do it wrong. View of Spallumcheen Farm from Swan Lake A 10,000-year-old lakebed gets thrown up into the wind while boaters get ready to be pulled around […]
Okanagan Okanogan 