Healing the West - Voices of Culture & Habitat (Hardcover, New)

Healing the West explores environmentalism and landscape in the American West through myriad voices, including Native American, drawn from a rich archive of interviews, recordings and writings conducted by Jack Loeffler over the course of several decades. The book is accompanied by a high-quality audio CD produced by the author featuring rare interviews of key environmental, historical, and Native speakers--including William deBuys, Rina Swentzell, Stewart Udall, and Gary Paul Nabhan--juxtaposed with sound collages of Native music and habitats. The book is organized around two sections or themes: The Spirit of Place focuses on the relationship of western indigenous cultures to the land. The second section, Moving Waters: The Colorado River and the West, addresses the role of the Colorado River in the development of the region over the last century. The book sheds new light on the conflicting absolutes of the land is sacred and the Earth is a living organism versus the concept of land as habitat for profit and exploitation. The conversation that develops in the book highlights the overall need to employ cognitive diversity in resolving these environmental tensions. The voices include writers, politicians, ranchers, attorneys, environmentalists, and others actively involved in the ongoing conversation over land, water rights, preservation and conservation. Among those interviewed, ethnobotanist Gary Paul Nabham; Nez Perce elder Mylie Lawyer; Nava-jo artist Shonto Begay; Tohomo O'odham wise woman Rosilde Manuel; Acoma potter Dolores Lewis; and Santa Clara historian Rina Swentzell; former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall; writer and environmentalist William deBuys;western historian Patricia Limerick; and former Arizona Governor and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt. Healing the West is an insightful and timely compilation that will appeal to readers interested in environmental issues in the American West.