Centuries Old Prejudice in Summary

The following transcript summarizes some of the worldview driving much of industry to view the west and wildness as things to be conquered. This prejudice is VERY MUCH alive today, whether it's the ungrounded fear and decimation of wild wolves and buffalo, or mountaintop removal and clear-cutting. Many members, especially enforcers of the livestock industry still use almost the same rhetoric regarding buffalo and Native Americans:

Columbus Delano
Secretary of the Interior
Annual Reports for 1872, 1873

"In our intercourse with the Indians it must always be borne in mind that we are the most powerful party... we are assuming,  and I think with propriety, that our civilization ought to take the place of their barbarous habits. We therefore claim the right to control the soil the occupy, and we assume that it is our duty to coerce them, if necessary, into the adoption and practice of our habits and customs... I would not seriously regret the total disappearance of the buffalo from our western prairies, in its effect upon the Indians, regarding it rather as a means of hastening their sense of dependence upon the products of the soil."

Peachy fellow... If that sounds fucked up to you, do something about it! It's still happening! Come to Native American gatherings and learn who they are; step in their shoes and experience their history and culture. Come to Montana and stand up for the endangered buffalo. Go to New Mexico and stand up for the near-extinct Mexican Gray Wolf. These essential elements of the American West and to existence as we know it are not only unprotected, they are actively persecuted and murdered, and their ways of life are almost completely destroyed. Start somewhere. Here are a few links to get you going:

http://earthfirstnews.wordpress.com/
www.buffalofieldcampaign.org
http://blackmesais.org/
http://www.7genfund.org/
http://www.defenders.org/mexican-gray-wolf/basic-facts

Happy actions!