Grouse Gap

“I pulled over and sobbed out there in the desert . . .”

… I offered my tears to the desert. And when I looked up, for the first time, I saw an explosion of life, abundant desert medicine that has existed all along, however camouflaged at first glance. Sage, tsudupe, petroglyphs, jack rabbits, desert cactus flowers, piñon, songs in the wind, history in the rocks. We may not always realize that life that surrounds us in the desert (or anywhere), but that doesn’t mean it’s not there. American history has been willfully ignorant about what is now known as the American West, and perpetuated the lie that it was ‘unsettled,’ ‘uninhabited,’ ‘open for grabs,’ and that Indians were ‘extinct.’ In the Great Basin you are in Paiute Country, on Nüümü land, in an abundant desert with rich culture and an Indigenous history worth knowing.”

~Matika Wilbur, in her book Project 562

---

This place is on the traditional territory of the Shasta, Takelma, Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla, and Modoc nations. (Crowdsourced info compiled by Native-Land.ca. Please visit the nations’ websites to learn more.) We support indigenous land rights and the Land Back movement.

 

---