Check the Menlo Library Catalog to see if a book is available.
The Nature of Desert Nature, edited by Gary Paul Nabhan
In this refreshing collection, Gary Paul Nabhan, challenges traditional notions of the desert. Beautiful, reflective, and at times humorous, Nabhan’s extended essay also called “The Nature of Desert Nature '' reveals the complexity of what a desert is and can be. He passionately writes about what it is like to visit a desert and what living in a desert looks like when viewed through a new frame, turning age-old notions of the desert on their heads.
The Land of Open Graves by Jason De León
Jason De León sheds light on one of the most pressing political issues of our time - the human consequences of US Immigration policy. The Land of Open Graves reveals the suffering and deaths that occur daily in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona as thousands of undocumented migrants attempt to cross the border from Mexico into the United States. De León uses an innovative combination of ethnography, archaeology, linguistics, and forensic science to produce a scathing critique of “Prevention Through Deterrence.”
The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West by Patricia Nelson Limerick
At its publication, this history book was revolutionary, undercutting the myth of the self-made, individualist spirit of the West and diving into a more truthful look at the violence and short-sighted policies that created the modern West. Limerick is the state historian for Colorado, and she shared her thoughts with Dragons as we developed this semester.
Voices From Bears Ears: Seeking Common Ground on Sacred Land edited by Rebecca Robinson Edge of Morning: Native Voices Speak forthe Bears Ears edited by Jacqueline Keeler
Bears Ears National Monument is one of the most controversial pieces of public lands in the United States. In 2016, President Obama designated the expansive monument at the request of an unprecedented intertribal coalition of 5 tribes: the Diné (Navajo), Ute, Hopi, Zuni, and Ute Mountain Ute. In 2017, the monument was reduced to a fraction of its size by Donald Trump. As tribes fight to protect their sacred land, they bump up against different worldviews that push for wilderness, uranium mining, or tourism. These books bring voices from disparate groups to illuminate the fight for Bears Ears.
Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water by Marc Reisner
A sweeping look at the transformation of the American West through the development of large-scale water projects. Reisner catalogs the battles (physical and political) over water and the ideals of manifest destiny that drove people to make the desert bloom.
House of Rain: Tracking a Vanished Civilization Across the American Southwest by Craig Childs
Craig Childsis an enchanting writer, illuminating the mysteries of the desert. The Secret Knowledge of Water tells the enchanting story of the desert from the perspective of water as it hides in the corners of dark canyons, and flows across the landscape in flash floods. Full of mythology and mystery, this book dive into the essence of a life closely tied to the rhythms of the desert. In House of Rain, Childs uses his enchanting writing style to chronicle visits to remote ruins, scientific investigations, and conversations with modern Puebloan people. His aim: to tell the 1000-year history of the Ancestral Puebloan peoples who lived in sites like Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde.
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Braiding Sweetgrass is a beautiful journey through our personal and cultural relationships with the natural world. Robin Wall Kimmerer writes from the dual perspectives of a Native American woman and an ecology professor, outlining the intersection between science and traditional ways of knowing the Earth.
Custer Died For Your Sins by Vine Deloria, Jr.
God Is Red by Vine Deloria, Jr.
The World We Used to Live In: Remembering the Powers of the Medicine Men by Vine Deloria, Jr.
Deloria, one of the great Native American writers of the 20th century, writes with a cutting humor on all issues that affect native peoples. Custer Died For Your Sins was the book that brought Native American issues into the national spotlight in 1969. This book is still as relevant 50 years later. In The World We Used To Live In, Deloria departs from the politics of his previous books and dives into the spiritual realm.
Where The Water Goes: Life and Death along the Colorado River by David Owen
The author’s account of his travels from the Colorado headwaters to the Gulf of Mexico as he interviews various landowners, government agencies, private businesses, farmers, recreationists, and residents who live along the river and benefit from its flows.
Nation to Nation: Treaties Between the United States and American Indian Nations by Suzan Shown Harjo
A deep collection of essays about the relationship between the United States government and native peoples. This book is an extremely important context for setting foot onto land that was recently governed by indigenous peoples or is in limbo today.
A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
A beautiful collection of essays written by one of the founders of modern ecology. Leopold talks about connection with the world from his farm, conservation issues affecting North America, and his grief at America’s relationship with nature and what might be done to restore a healthy, compassionate relationship and land ethic.
High Country News
This isn’t a book—it’s a newsmagazine. High Country News is an excellent source for articles about everything affecting people living in the West, especially land, water, food, indigenous issues, and immigration.
Check Menlo's Kanopy Video Streaming page to see if a film is available.
When Humanitarian Aid is Considered a Crime
Scott Warren's arrest for providing shelter to two migrants posed a question to his community and the court: Under what circumstances could humanitarian aid be deemed illegal?
Raised From Earth
Under the gaze of southern Arizona’s cinnamon-hued Canelo Hills, a mother shares ancient building traditions with her three sons. In Puebloan creation stories, adobe structures, like people, emerge from the earth and return to the earth. For Athena Steen, it’s the family memories, skills, knowledge, love, laughter—and the clay itself—that endure.
Damnation: The Problem with Hydropower
In the last decade, we have entered a controversial era of dam removal. This film is a great introduction to the world of dams and the impact they have on ecosystems and indigenous peoples. Produced by the company Patagonia, this film put the issues of dams and rivers into the national mind.
Battle Over Bears Ears
The Bears Ears National Monument is at the center of land management controversy in Utah. President Obama designated the monument in 2016 at the request of a 5-tribe coalition. President Trump shrank the monument in a controversial move during his first year in office. His motivation: oil, gas, and uranium extraction. PBS illuminates the current struggle to protect what the intertribal coalition sees as their sacred and fragile land.
Available here: https://www.pbs.org/video/
A Native Perspective on the Buried History of America
This hour-long lecture by Mark Charles chroniclesthe development of the Doctrine of Discovery, the legal basisfor the displacement and genocide of the native peoples of North America by the United States Government. The Doctrine of Discovery dates back to a legal mandate in the 1400’s by the Vatican, stating that European Christians have rights to any land on Earth, and is still the basis for U.S. private property law, referenced by the supreme court as recently as 2005. Mark Charles does a wonderful job illuminating the history of theft of native land that so many in the U.S. never learn.
Portraits of the Upper Colorado & Mirror River
River activist Will Stauffer-Norris boated the Colorado from source to sea, interviewing people about their relationships with the Colorado River. Mirror River is a 3-minute timelapse of the river trip, with the river growing in the upper basin, then shrinking to nothing in the lower basin. You can find the films online at these links:
Portraits of the Upper Colorado: Powell to Powell: Portraits of the Upper Colorado (Episodes 1-5) on Vimeo (22:33)
Mirror River: Mirror River (source to sea in 3 minutes on Vimeo)
Seed: The Untold Story
At the center of the food systems of the desert Southwest are special seeds, preserved for generations by people taking care of the land. This film tells the story of the decline in traditional seeds and the effort to preserve them as industrial agriculture takes hold across the world, especially in the United States.