Erica Berry on the meaning of wolves
How We Live Now with Katherine May
The Embedded Conflation in the Founding of States and Nationhoods
The history of the speaker's home state of Oregon reveals the conflation of laws targeting wolves and laws excluding people of color. The early government meetings placed a tax bounty on editors to kill wolves, reflecting the founding of the state on the expulsion of wolves. These early laws were followed by black exclusion laws, allowing only white people in the state. The speaker observed that the same people voting against wolves were also excluding people of color and Asian Americans, highlighting the embedded conflation in the language. The speaker also highlighted efforts to control hunting, profit from the land, and the parallel between wolf packs and human communities, suggesting that humans have learned from wolves for thousands of years.
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