From Theodore Roosevelt National Park we headed south. Originally we'd planned to go through South Dakota and then down into Colorado, but the day before we left we noticed that if you west around the Black Hills you pass right by a place none of us had every been -- Devil's Tower.

I'll confess that my chief assoc


One of the things that really clicked for me in that child's eisenstein piece is the idea that damaging the land damage the people who live on it I think that's a very overlooked aspect like I mean the damage they did hurt the land and then that damage to the land hurt them you know I mean people have guilts about the fact that they're gone they don't have anything to give to their children stories like that to me very hopeful because I think that's the first step is recognizing hey we did this wrong let's back up let's figure out how to do it right and yes that started way back when those people displaced the native people and you know didn't bother to even really acknowledge them or learn from them or figure out hey maybe this isn't the best place to farm maybe we should go farm over here and let these people keep this land the way they have it because I think there's an idea that the native people in the United States were just running around hunting and Gathering or something you know that's that's true they were that's I think a great lifestyle but they were also practicing Land Management you know they were burning things they were moving things you know they were planting in some cases and we just ignored all that then it's a wealth of knowledge a wealth of seeds that we just let go and I think that in some ways going back to that and figuring out how to fix that is the project of you know these places out here where there is all this damage and all this pain and nothing you know these hollowed out cities I'm driving past the skeleton Farms that you see at the end of all these driveways dead trees I mean the dead trees to me or the most telling thing these trees are dead because whoever was watering them went away well if you can't grow trees somewhere how are you going to grow anything else you know that that was your first clue you know this whole rainfalls the cloud there it follows the plow nonsense that the government was spewing was just wishful thinking like this this civilization out here these people living out here are living on wishful thinking of the US government they were lied to they were cheated and they made it work in spite of all that they made it work for so many years that is just amazing to me like what a resilient people but I do think that like that resilience is gone in a lot of ways I don't I don't see it anymore you know at least just passing through the town so I mean what do I know really not much so that's just my speculation but my sense from being out here is that there's a real loss being well in all these communities and that rebuilding needs to happen and it needs to happen within the communities everybody outside of it like me and and you we need to shut the fuck up and get out of the way right and let these people sort it out for themselves and if they ask for help sure help but you know like Williams always said the most dangerous person you'll ever meet is the one who says they just want to help