The Battle for the West

As a child, I thought winning the West was great. As I've spent my life out here and been able to talk with indigenous people whose cultures were negatively impacted by the westward expansion of European settlers, I've understood that I want no part of winning the West because it presumes an adversarial relationship between people in place. It's not about how much can be sustainably taken from a landscape. It's about how do people and a place sustain each other in a reciprocal relationship. And it's really changed the way I think about that term, winning the West.