John Muir is hailed as an environmental hero. He wrote & advocated to protect the “wilderness,” including Yosemite. But the land, Ahwahnee, was already named & loved by the Ahwahneechee people.
Muir wasn’t interested in the original inhabitants. He was a pioneer in the environmental movement, but he was also racist & friends with prominent eugenicists. His complicated legacy is just one of many examples in American #history when environmental protections were at odds with environmental justice.
@thedogspaw @ablackcatstail @Sheril should we disregard the faults of the past? we can point to muir's environmentalism but not forget his eugenicist beliefs.
to ignore his faults and the faults of others is to perpetuate those faults.
@Sheril
True - and important context for history.
But we can carry forward environmental principles without fetishizing the person - or debate if other bad views they held negate the good ones.
Definitely some problematic behaviors yes. It's also complicated to try to sum up a human life in just a few words.
This article notes a few of the tensions within Muir himself, and / or how he grew over time:
https://www.sfpublicpress.org/john-muir-racial-politics-and-the-restoration-of-indigenous-lands-in-yosemite/
Quote:
""Muir called the handful of Miwuk living in Yosemite who had survived a racial genocide “dirty.” But his later writings show that his attitude shifted over time.
"“When he arrived in Alaska” in 1899, Stetson said, “he was accompanied by and guided by Indians. He became incredibly fond of them. He was engaged with Indian cultures that were fully intact. His understanding of their loyalties, their families, their culture in general, was certainly very positive in every way.”""
@Sheril Complicated is right, and these blind spots or even intentional cruelty wrapped up as pragmatism is certainly not limited to USA.
In Finland, there's an equally complicated legacy with Pentti Linkola.
He was an incredible environmental activist and ornithologist and also established the Finnish Natural Heritage Foundation to conserve old growth forests.
His philosophy, however, was undeniably ecofascist, which the racists and fascists use as a "gotcha" to the Left.
The Sierra Nevada mountain range rises high above the eastern boundary of California’s Central Valley. A rocky spine some four hundred miles long, its staggered peaks are wreathed with conifer fore…
Well...sort of.
What Muir did and wrote in California, esp wrt indigenous people, was racist and we should call it that. Worse, it formed the conceptual underpinnings for what NPS did and continues to do to deny indigenous folks access/co-management in their own homelands. Big blind spot for the white environmentalist movement and the feds.
That said: it's worth reading Muir's last work, about Alaska, to see how his views/awareness changed as he aged.
People do learn.
@sarae I share this not to wholly condemn Muir, but rather because a lot of folks I speak with about climate change & conservation assume environmental sustainability & environmental justice always go hand in hand.
They can, but too often, they haven’t.
Oh, they absolutely do not, and that's definitely a point worth raising. There's also a strong culture of contrarian/not-listening behavior within the "environmental" movement that is simultaneously a strength...and makes it hard to bring depth to conversations. David Brower is perhaps the classic example.
But I want us talking about whole stories, because I think we all learn more that way, so I try to lean in and encourage that where I can.
@Sheril @sarae
You might not have wholly condemned him, but it seems like you were basically implying that Muir was a proto-Nazi who was completely apathetic to the barbarous treatment of Indigenous peoples and the theft of their lands.
Could he have been a better advocate for environmental justice? Of course!
Could we all? Absolutely!
Is there a better way to spotlight the disconnect that often occurs between sustainability and justice? I'd argue there is!
@Sheril @sarae
...Why? Because we are going to need people to evolve, to become better, if we are going to succeed. John Muir’s evolution as a person can serve as an example of this."
-Aaron Mair, Chad Hanson and Mary Ann Nelson.
https://johnmuirproject.org/2020/07/who-was-john-muir-really/
We have often been conditioned to think idealistically about great historical figures as icons, institutions, or superheroes, despite the historical context of their times, but that’s a mistake. They are all people, and their lives have arcs that may involve major changes and transformations. They are a product of their upbringing but it is up...
@Sheril there's a walking route here in scotland named after him. I walked about 20 miles of it, i was not impressed.
i felt i was walking on the bones of indigenous people.
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