This Land Was Made

This Land Was Made is a confrontation with the altruistic mythology of the National Parks and the cognitive dissonance I face while hiking and climbing in these areas. 

Trails pocketed with natural deposits of marble, limestones, and quartz, also feature mortar holes, knapping sites, and pictographs. This juxtaposition washes away the mythology of untouched and unpopulated virgin lands; and the reality of the forced removal and killing of indigenous peoples for the settler colonial project remains.

While finding joy and recreation in these places, the entrance gates, trails, and modern efficiencies, are reminders that the National parks are manufactured. Their borders are contrived, and dictate the limits of what we understand to be wilderness.

Where people once lived in relationship with the land, I now stop to visit for only a day or two.