Walking Toward Moosalamoo: A Natural History of Terra Nullius

Conservationist, former professor (American Indian studies, Univ. of Minnesota), and author Carlson (Home Is the Hunter: The James Bay Cree and Their Land) showcases a wide sweep of knowledge throughout this hybrid travel memoir/land philosophy text. A largely pessimistic view of all the ways Americans have destroyed the earth, Carlson's writings are heady and full of history. The philosophical text contrasts greatly with his travel writing about three summers he hiked toward Mount Moosalamoo in Vermont, which is lyrical and appreciative of the land. Carlson delves into such topics as colonial domination, storytelling, fossil fuel, the Western inability to understand Native beliefs, competition among businesses, and the failures of the civil rights movement. His many arguments on how man has neglected the earth are persuasive and depressing. He writes of the earth and the animals that populate it as entities humans must speak with and cease wounding. Many ideas are explored, but they often don't connect to the book's travel narrative segments. Few solutions or suggestions for improvement are offered until the final pages, and even then few practical options are given aside from returning to gardening, local manufacturing, and finding ways to combine private ownership with common lands.