Death gives way to life, to regrowth, and to rebirth, but there is a certain nuance to the dying that has much to tell us about the times, observable in the particular ethos of destruction—be it en…
DinéYazhi´ expressed the belief that the only ethical path forward for the United States, particularly in locations that hold a deep indigenous history, means direct acknowledgement of indigenous peoples, “both for their erasure, but also for the fact that they have maintained certain areas, what settlers or colonizers consider pristine, natural land.” Gesturing back to this notion of death, DinéYazhi´ described what he called a “heteropatriarchal, ‘big boy’ fantasy of destruction in order for there to be any sort of regrowth.” This mentality stands in stark contrast to the care for the death and regrowth cycles, exemplified by the way indigenous peoples had historically cared for the health of the land in the Pacific Northwest through controlled burning before the government took over. A contemporary repercussion: the Eagle Creek fires. “We’re living in a very fragile ecosystem. We’re living in a very fragile sociopolitical system as well,” he said...
