Featured Site:
Indigenous Environmental Network. The West, like much of the US, has been devastated by environmental toxicity that has been borne unequally by peoples of color and the poor of all ethncities. This site focuses on the resistance to environmental racism and environmental injustice on the part of the iindigenous peoples of the region.
- Atomic West Site exploring thte major nuclear weapons sites and "national sacrifice zones" that pock the modern west -- Nevada Test Site, Hanford Nuclear Reservation, and the Trinity Site in New Mexico.
- Native Americans and the Environment Rich site that refutes many of the romantic
myths about "natural" natives, while illuminating the horendous environmental conditions facing many indigenous communities today.
-
Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920 from American Memory project.
-
John Muir Exhibit A rich resource on one of the key figures of the early preservationist cause.
- Meriwether Lewis The Lewis and Clark "corps of discovery" exemplifies the colonizing impact of "mapping as discovering as claiming" the land.
-
Theodore Roosevelt One of the prime achitects of the western myths of "manliness and individualism," and key player in early conservationist ideologies.
- The Significance of the Frontier in American History, b Fredrick Jackson Turner. The most influential scholarly essay ever written about the US Western landscape as key factor in shaping the "American character."
- American Southwest One of the most comprehensive online guides to parks and scenic landscapes.
- Asian Reflections on the American Landscape Fascinating National Park Service-produced pamphlet.
- National Park Service Get an "official" government view of the US landscape. The "history and culture" section has some surprises.