To understand why the Hudson Bay Company might have wanted to destroy the stock of beavers in the Snake River country, it’s helpful to go back to 1809, when John Jacob Astor, […]
36. Alliances and the Mountains: War by Other Means, Part 3.
35. The Long Arm of New France: War By Other Means, Part 2
In the previous post, I showed how even the simplest concepts of property and individuality from the settlement era in the Pacific Northwest (180 years ago) have determined much of the world […]
34. War by Other Means, Part 1
In my last post https://okanaganokanogan.com/2022/11/22/39-you-say-skaha-i-say-sqexeʔ/, number 33 in this series, I pointe out that even the simple concepts that determine human relationships to land today, things universally dispersed or at least fought […]
23. Pandosy and the People of the Grass
The last few days, I have been trying to demonstrate what colonial history might have looked like when Indigenous law still ruled the Pacific Northwest. People have been here for something like […]
Race and Apples 7: Production and Distribution
Here we are, seven steps towards the future. It’s getting close! I’ve been following the trail of the racialized beginnings of fruit growing in Cascadia, to the costs of that in our […]
Race and Apples 1: Mixed Beginnings
In the last week, an important discussion has gained some traction: race and environment. https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/environmental-racism-bill-c-230-1.5954082. In short, media is reporting on how the effects of climate change and environmental damage are born […]
Lahal or Illahie or Ouregon or Just B.C.?
If we keep talking about this land & water as British Columbia, or just plain old B.C., we’re never going to get settler culture behind us, but if we change it to […]
The Only Hope for the Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys in a Culture of Fire
I hate to say it, but the dream that has kept my family tied to the land for 91 years in this trough in the Columbia Plateau is over. Instead of a […]
When a Weed is More than a Weed
Dandelions were brought by the earliest settlers to the Pacific Northwest, as food and medicinal plants for gardens. They escaped. Earthworms were also brought by European settlers. Curiously, settler culture now encourages […]
Race and Orcharding in British Columbia and Washington
This is the second of three posts about the costs of farming. This one is about the tangle between land and race. The next is about broader environmental and social factors. If […]
Okanagan Okanogan 