Allowing the Land Itself to Heal the Rift Between Native and Non-Native

"If you think about all of the various stories of the trail in the American West, they will break your heart. But in these stories of broken hearts, there is also healing and joy. And that joy and that healing has come from the land itself. And I don't think we can forget that - that the land literally brings us back to a reverential state of mind where we realize that the health of the land is the health of the people. It is about Spirit. And in that Spirit are our seeds of joy, and that's where I stake my claim in the future."

Terry Tempest Williams 
In Ken Burns' "The West"

My wife and I just finished watching Ken Burns' PBS series on "The West." It is almost impossible to describe what this series has done to me. Much of the history presented here I was at least partially familiar with, but the way in which it was compiled and presented I find profoundly powerful and moving. In fact, I have found myself shedding tears numerous times over the past month whenever I ponder the sections in this movie detailing the hundreds of broken promises made to our Native Peoples during the past several centuries. And yet I'm convinced that it is our common love of the land - a love which comes FROM the land that is experienced profoundly by both Native and non-Native - that has the potential to bring us to a transformed state of consciousness. I hope and pray that my photographs can contribute to that healing in some small way . . .
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Here is the series theme song: https://youtu.be/BFPloBBTw-Q
Photo: Bison and Mount Moran, Grand Teton National Park, WY

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