John Muir’s Tormented Landscape: The Return of Indigenous Memory to American Conservation

Global Sustainability Scholars Series, Center for Sustainable Communities 

In this lecture, Paul Robbins dissects naturalist John Muir’s 1912-1913 work, “The Story of My Boyhood and Youth.” This unconventional piece contains detailed descriptions of Native American life, reflecting a repressed memory of their expulsion. Muir’s romanticized view of the wilderness obscured indigenous land ownership. His evolving attitudes toward Native cultures enriched his work, but his influence on the national park system perpetuated the expulsion of native peoples. 

Paul Robbins is the dean of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. With decades of experience as a researcher and educator, Robbins specializes in the political entanglements of environmental conservation, wild species protection, and land management and control. A reception will be held afterwards with light refreshments served.