Next week we will be departing on our first expedition: a four-day sea kayak trip. As we prepare for this experience, I would like you to think about what is "wilderness". For this blog, I would like you to:
1. Visit and read about wilderness at wilderness.net
2. Post a blog entry that includes your summary definition of wilderness (do not copy & paste!).
3. Post a one-paragraph statement with your reaction to the following quote about wilderness. Include if you agree or disagree with this point of view and why.
We did not think of the great open plains, the beautiful rolling hills, and winding streams with tangled growth, as “wild.” Only to the white man was nature a “wilderness” and only to him was the land “infested” with “wild animals” and “savage” people. To us it was tame. Earth was bountiful and we were surrounded with the blessings of the Great Mystery. —Chief Luther Standing Bear, of the Oglala band of Sioux.
Again, be sure to use a word processor to spell and grammar check before posting and to post using your first name. This post is due before 9:00 am class on Friday, Sept. 14.
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8 comments:
i think wilderness is the study of the land that was and the land that is. it is all about the wild and how it interacts with the environment.
i agree with the quote. i do think that we do not always realize the extent of the wild. anything living is wild. plants live in the wild. as humans, we tend to overlook that.
I’m not really sure how I’d define wilderness, it seems to me to be a pretty open ended term. Perhaps it could be somewhere that one can get lost if not careful and with the potential risk of injury. This would leave the term wilderness available to being applied to both the northern Maine woods and the streets of New York City (it is with reason that cities are sometimes referred to as urban jungles). However with proper knowledge and care neither place is in and of itself dangerous.
Chief Luther Standing Bear makes a valid statement. Certainly the way the Native Americans saw nature was vastly different from the view of European settlers and still many of today’s Americans. In the quote given he doesn’t really seam to be making an overt value judgment, but it seems implied that the Native view is the correct one. I’m not particularly fond of arguing value statements because it involves a long discussion on Value in general, which is pretty difficult and impossible with deists and Platonist. However if you accept my definition of wilderness then it does really all depend on your point of view.
To me wilderness is forested areas undisturbed by man. I feel that wilderness is a place to get away from stress and have fun. Wilderness should be be kept clean and maneged properly for future generations to come.
I agree with his statement that when white settlers came to America they looked at it as a wild dangerous place and also a sore of wealth instead of a blessing to be appreciated. I feel that some people still look at it this way and do not fully appreciate what is here.
To me wilderness is forested areas undisturbed by man. I feel that wilderness is a place to get away from stress and have fun. Wilderness should be be kept clean and maneged properly for future generations to come.
I agree with his statement that when white settlers came to America they looked at it as a wild dangerous place and also a sore of wealth instead of a blessing to be appreciated. I feel that some people still look at it this way and do not fully appreciate what is here.
September 13, 2007 9:48 PM
Wilderness – Area untouched to the human hand of cultivation, a free raining territory of wild animals and a plants, And densely populated with forest, and/or desert
When the white man came to America, they came in and started labeling. They gave the earth the title of wilderness, a place of danger and adventure. The Native Americans, on the other hands, who lived off this “wilderness”, only saw life, from their past, and present, and this wilderness what was they received life from. I agree with this point of view from Chief Standing Bear, in which I don’t think there are these wild areas, infested with wild animals and savage people, but only opportunity for life.
wilderness is earth in its natural state. rageing rivers, tall mountains, and vast plains. To go to a place almost untouched by humans where earth can look the way it was ment too.
Cheif Luther Standing Bear make a very knowlegable statement in his quote. The Native Americans often saw the natural world, or "wilderness" as the beauty of earth and treated it as such. With most whites it was seen as something to conquor and change. That some how natural earth was less importaint then them. In turn this changed and ruined many strands of "wilderness" for future generations.
wilderness is how nature reacts with its environment. It gives people a place to escape from civilization, and become one with nature, and find there true calling. Just as lewis and clark were driven to explore more of nature and find what we now call america.
I agree whith Cheif Luthers statement about the wilderness, others look at it and dont appreciate the true beauty. All they see is lots of of bugs, and put on all the bug spray the can get, but to me I look at nature, and think of excuses so that I can get the day of just to be out in the woods hiking or riding my bike, or out on the ocean in my kayak, enjoying the view of an eagle swooping down and catching a fish. To me that is what nature is all about.
wilderness is a place before roads, build and cars when air was fresh you cound go three or four days and not see manmade place.
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