THE PEOPLE OF CASCADIA by Heidi Bohan ( 2009 )

Long before the arrival of European explorers, the Pacific Northwest was home to scores of native First Nations communities that over the course of thousands of years evolved and sustained a way of life that deeply engaged the natural world in each specific place they inhabited.

To convey these diverse yet related stories accurately in a manner that captivates a general audience is no easy task. Yet Heidi Bohan has done just that with her encyclopedic guided tour, The People of Cascadia, now in its fifth printing.

Bohan's diligent yet agreeable treatment of the subject evidently draws from her personal journey as ethnobotanist and cultural educator. The informative text is always lucid, effectively measured and organized into categories so to make the vast range of topics covered all the more accessible to readers. It is further enhanced by an ample array of the author's instructive pen and ink drawings that are not unlike the sort one might find in a do-it-yourself arts and crafts manual. The overall result is a book that serves equally well as classroom tool for teachers and research reference for students of all ages.

So whatever one's interest or fascination - housing, healing, technology; nutrition, trade or ceremony – adults and children alike can expect a most satisfying visit to these learned pages, one that inspires investigation along with a simple reminder that the cultures of indigenous peoples are integral to the history, science and wisdom of any life-supporting region, Cascadian or otherwise.

Learn more at Heidi Bohan's website: http://www.heidibohan.com/

CASCADIA FIELD GUIDE edited by Elizabeth Bradfield, CMarie Fuhrman, and Derek Sheffield (2023)

A bioregional way of life begins with a simple acknowledgment, an orientation to “place”. It is then enriched by experience gained through diverse human and non-human relations. Over time, these relationships enhance the reciprocal splendor and nurture of what we slowly come to engage and respect as a complex weave, a shared homeland, of which we humans are a natural part and participant.

Accordingly, Cascadia Field Guide breaks the mold that typically dictates the form and function of conventional nature field guides and reference materials. Gone are the scientific standards that objectify flora and fauna, that sort them into categories removed from a living context.

Instead, Cascadia Field Guide is divided into 13 biotic communities or biomes, among them: Tidewater Glacier, Temperate Rainforest, Urban Shore, and Shrub-Steppe. Each community features 8-12 beings - not species - who are introduced to the reader by way of evocative poems, drawings, and get-to-know narratives that conjure up feeling and intuition as much as they offer pertinent information. These creative renderings are presented by scores of perceptive Cascadian contributors who enliven the subjective and interpersonal, conveying a sense of "being in place" among "all the relations".

Toward a similar end, the editors astutely assign the personal pronoun “they” in place of "it" throughout when referring to a tree, a bird, a fish, or any living being. They also go to lengths to cite accurately and respectfully the traditional names, phrases and customs that source from First Nations people who have lived in Cascadia since time immemorial.

A final “chapter”, entitled “Human”, rounds out the journey with contributor biographies, bibliographies, reference materials, and gratitude.

To be sure, the result is not a field guide that aims to be encyclopedic. Instead, one can revisit Cascadia Field Guide time and time again with the promise that you should experience something fresh and new along the way, not unlike a return to a favorite forest, seashore or mountain trail.

As the book's "Introduction" encourages: Grab your binoculars, hand lens, notebook and go!

Cascadia, the bioregion, calls!

Learn more at the official Cascadia Field Guide website: www.cascadiafieldguide.com/ 

THE CULTURE OF MAKE-BELIEVE by Derrick Jensen ( 2002 )

Can the ecological crises that we face at the start of the 21st century be resolved without a thorough examination of those destructive forces inherent to civilization?

The Culture of Make-Believe by Derrick Jensen pursues such a course of inquiry fearlessly from an array of historical, social and psychological perspectives that are bound to upset the convenient models and mindsets of politicians, policymakers, even many an ardent environmental activist. Racism, colonization, domestic and state-sponsored violence: these topics and more are woven with fresh insight throughout an effectively researched discourse that in spite of its pessimistic tone and occasional flashes of outrage remains remarkably digestible by way of Jensen's personable voice and ample anecdotal considerations. Two decades after its publication, the rhetorical power still resonates as surely as complex challenges persist concerning the health of the biosphere.

So regardless of how one feels about militant activism or eco-primitive alternatives to mainstream lifestyles - as professed by Jensen in the Deep Green Resistance movement that he co-founded in 2011 with Lierre Keith and Arin McBay - engaging this book is a must for anyone who values asking the right questions in order to arrive at enduring solutions.

And if the read seems 100 pages too long, it only underscores the ongoing, unresolved history of denial that is part of Jensen's analysis and critique, and likewise if by contrast, the perniciously short and sweet cultural myths that pervade our modern societies and encourage boundless “development” as mantra, destiny, or abstract economic design.

Learn more at Derrick Jensen's website: http://www.derrickjensen.org