Lessons in whiteness
Even well-meaning opinions by voices presuming to be immune from the racist elements of their whiteness cannot avoid the histories embedded in their language, attitudes, and perspectives.
Morning on the Riverwalk along the San Antonio River
I greet the day with delight in the cool air of dawn. I am happily surprised to find a sliver of solitude along the San Antonio riverwalk.
Are national parks really America’s best idea?
The “best idea” of creating national parks involved eradicating the previous meanings and uses of these places that had sustained indigenous cultures for centuries.
Colonizing tourists
Claims that tourism involves colonization, terrorism, dispossession, commodification are valid, but these are reasons to take tourists more seriously and study them more carefully.
Mesa Wisdom of the Hopi People
Though a product of colonial violence, Frank Waters’ Book of the Hopi offers an alternate vision and a critique of our ultimately self-destructive assumptions, values, and modes of living.
Border walls have a long history in America
Border walls are rooted in a colonial way of thinking about territory that has been fundamental to American claims to land. Even George Washington suggested that we needed one.
Dreaming of Christopher Columbus with an Ache in Your Heart
Christopher Columbus has become more symbol than historical person. The dreams that his memory inspires as well as the tragedies that resulted from his voyages remain part of our national tale.
Painted Ghosts on a Rock Wall
They brought their guns, they brought crosses, they brought an end to the ancient ways of this land. They came on horses that trampled the soil, that fed on the maize, that drank from the river. Spotted dogs sniffed out the places of refuge. During those first days the ancestors painted their ghosts on this…
Detourist in a Holy Land
On a sojourn to the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota, author Tom Fate discovers the detourist’s novel ways of seeing, being, and relating.