{Sequoia National Park originally posted by US Interior) Sequoia National Park is the homeland of the Nyyhmy (Western Mono, Monache) Nation. Living for hundreds of years in the valleys of the Sierras, the Nyyhmy were pushed onto a series of Rancherias in the early 20th century as the result of decades of logging, settlement, and environmental preservation. Today, the Nyyhmy people of the western Sierras live on the Big Sandy, Cold Springs, Northfork, and Table Mountain Rancherias and at Tule River Reservation. Visit the Sierra Mono Museum in Northfork to learn more.
While it is easy to think of logging and preservation as opposite sides of a land management spectrum, it is also important to see the way they each can be complicit in environmental injustice. At the end of a year when both human rights and environmental laws have been under attack in the United States, it is important for advocates to remember this history and learn from it. We need to approach future conservation intersectionally, in a way that honors both the land and the people who depend on it.