Let’s be humble for a moment. There is a global culture today, and it is not humble. It looks out through human actors, apprehends the image below through their complex biological organs […]
Indian Reserves and Language
Practical Ways to Re-Indigenize the Grasslands. Really.
Two days ago, I suggested that the former grassland hillsides of the Okanagan Valley (now large, private expanses of unproductive and water-wasting weeds), an area at least equal to the 100s of […]
Why Populism is a Bad Thing
Populism is a form of political system which furthers the beliefs of a class called “the people” against a class called “the elite.” We could call “the people” any of the following: […]
The End of White Privilege in the Okanagan
For about 125 years, my valley has been the setting for the creation of a White homeland. It started in a British Empire that was largely Asian, looking for a racial state […]
The Snake and Turtle Trail
There is an ancient trail that comes in from spaxmən (Douglas Lake), crosses kɬúsx̌nítkw (Okanagan Lake) below, on the lower left … … and enters a tongue of land called “The Commonage”. The trail […]
Making Humans
On the shores of Kalamalka Lake there is an ancient village. It’s so old it has been forgotten. The people who live there now don’t know that the land that called them, […]
The Okanagan’s Missing Water
Here it is. Blue Bunch Wheatgrass This 10-year-old re-seeded slope shows the likely historical condition of the valley under Syilx stewardship. This grass is very much alive. The valley hasn’t looked like […]
The People of the Grass
Just look at this Great Basin Giant Wild Rye in the late November sun. It’s growing up the hill from my house, in land set aside for new houses. Actually, it was […]
Bringing the Salmon Home to sx̌ʷəx̌ʷnitkʷ
It is the time of the year when the sun ripens. Whether it is smooth sumac… … sedums storing sunlight during the day to eat it at night … … wild gooseberry […]
Giving the Children Water: The Bigger Educational Picture
Last night, I wrote about the benefits of environmental transformation that could come through the simple mechanism of attaching a wetland to every school in the Okanagan. It’s worth elaborating on, because […]
Okanagan Okanogan 