In the reading this week, I think the author touched on a lot of important topics that I don’t really tend to think about. There was a quote that really stuck out to me that reads, “The removal of Indians to create an “uninhabited wilderness”-uninhabited as never before in the human history of the place-reminds us just how invented, just how constructed, the American wilderness really is” (pp 15). The idea that the American wilderness was viewed as “unhabited” is inaccurate because Indigenous people had created and built their lives in these areas long before the Europeans even arrived. The assumption of an untouched wilderness erases the history and presence of the Indigenous people who lived there for centuries. The concept of wilderness itself is socially constructed. It has made us view of nature as something separate from human influence or habitation. Western viewpoints were focused on the fact that nature existed for their own use and benefit. On the contrary, many Indigenous cultures have a strong connection with nature, spiritually and physically. They tend to view nature and humans as interconnected and they have the want to protect and preserve the land for their future generations. They often have more sustainable practices and a balanced relationship with nature, which could not be said the same for the Western world.

I hadn’t really thought a lot about how our relationship with nature has been constructed by the ideals our country was built on. The idea that we “dominate” the natural world has been passed on for generations and is the building blocks of how we have treated the nature around us. In many religious contexts, there are connections described between humans and nature, where humans are depicted as having been given dominion over the Earth. This can be interpreted as exploiting nature for human benefit and prioritizing human activities over nature. It makes me rethink how I view nature and how much we rely on it in our day to day lives without even realizing it. I think our society as a whole needs to appreciate our surroundings more and not take what nature has given us and continues to give for us for granted.