12-16-2021, 02:50 PM
Savage Dreams: A Journey into the Hidden Wars of the American West by Rebecca Solnit
Rebecca Solnit is an activist and author and this book chronicles, kind of, her participation in the Nuclear Test protests at Nellis Air Force Base in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The book was published in 1994 so a few things have changed since then. But Solnit also goes into the history of the atomic bomb and the effects that all that testing has done on the environment and the people living around the base. It's not pretty. Solnit couples those stories with the discovery of Yosemite. If Nellis is Armageddon, then Yosemite is Eden. And both have repercussions for the indigenous people who live in both places. It is a fascinating and eye opening look at both places. It filled in more of my gaps of Yosemite History with an emphasis on the Native American Culture.
The title is kind of play on words as the final chapter deals with James Savage who led the Mariposa Battalion into Yosemite in search of Chief Tenaya and the Awhaneechees. Solnit fills out Savages backstory nicely. Solnit also visited Savage's memorial at Hensley Lake, which I have done as well. She also stopped at the Raymond General Store and Bar. She recounts her sojourn in the book.
And again, the book was disturbing, giving me a new way to look at places I thought I knew. Hence the quote above.
Rebecca Solnit is an activist and author and this book chronicles, kind of, her participation in the Nuclear Test protests at Nellis Air Force Base in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The book was published in 1994 so a few things have changed since then. But Solnit also goes into the history of the atomic bomb and the effects that all that testing has done on the environment and the people living around the base. It's not pretty. Solnit couples those stories with the discovery of Yosemite. If Nellis is Armageddon, then Yosemite is Eden. And both have repercussions for the indigenous people who live in both places. It is a fascinating and eye opening look at both places. It filled in more of my gaps of Yosemite History with an emphasis on the Native American Culture.
The title is kind of play on words as the final chapter deals with James Savage who led the Mariposa Battalion into Yosemite in search of Chief Tenaya and the Awhaneechees. Solnit fills out Savages backstory nicely. Solnit also visited Savage's memorial at Hensley Lake, which I have done as well. She also stopped at the Raymond General Store and Bar. She recounts her sojourn in the book.
And again, the book was disturbing, giving me a new way to look at places I thought I knew. Hence the quote above.
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm