Settler colonialism and the violent geographies of tourism in the California redwoods

Abstract

Hidden from view, underneath the tourism landscape of the California redwoods, is a genocidal settler colonial history of warfare, massacres, and forced removal of Native Americans from their ancestral lands. This history has been ignored in the touristic narrative of people and place presented by a redwoods attraction in northern California, which are rife with unacknowledged histories and geographies of violence. Framed by scholarship on violent geographies in tourism development, this study shows how redwoods tourism has erased Indigenous people and history from the landscape, and how new ‘power-laden’ tourism imaginaries have been created in their place. The new tourism narrative is found in the spatial layout, interpretive signage, exhibits, website, museum of Native American artifacts, and interpretive trails in a roadside attraction called Trees of Mystery. Secondary historical literature and maps of local Yurok ancestral territory and land ownership construct a counter-narrative of the site's geography and history. Findings reveal a fanciful settler colonial history highlighting heroic male loggers on the ‘frontier’, and representations of ingenious Native Americans as historic people who produced beautiful tools, clothing and artwork but are now defeated, dead, and exotic. In fact, white settlers, backed by the U.S. Army and local militias, appropriated and logged Native American redwood lands, and in doing so massacred resident Yurok People and forced the survivors from their traditional territories. Conversely, the Yurok People have been reclaiming ancestral lands, reviving cultural practices, and resisting settler colonialism from the early 1800s to the present-day. Across the Americas, countless other settler colonial tourism sites like these sit upon violent geographies. Unearthing the hidden geography of this particular site shows how decolonizing research might be undertaken at other tourism sites situated on stolen Indigenous lands in the U.S. and beyond.

摘要

在加州红杉的旅游景观之下, 隐藏着一段殖民者种族灭绝的殖民历史, 通过战争、屠杀而迫使美洲原住民离开他们祖先的土地。本研究的目的是了解北加州红杉旅游景点所呈现的人物和地点的旅游叙事, 并调查该景点背后不为人知的暴力的历史地理。本研究以旅游发展中暴力地理的研究为框架, 展示了红杉旅游如何将土著居民和历史从景观中抹去, 以及如何在他们的地方创造出新的“充满权力”的旅游想象。该研究分析了在空间布局、解说标识、展品、网站、土著美洲文物博物馆和路边一个名为“神秘之树”的景点解说步道等方面发现的旅游叙事。然后, 它使用二手历史文献和当地尤洛克族（Yurok）祖先领土和土地所有权的地图, 构建了一种对该遗址的历史地理的另类叙述。调查结果揭示了一段充满幻想的定居者殖民历史, 突出了“边境”上英勇的男性伐木工, 以及具有独创性的土著美国人作为历史人物的表现, 他们生产了漂亮的工具、衣服和艺术品, 但现在被打败了, 死亡了, 充满异国情调。研究显示了殖民者如何肆意砍伐美洲本土红杉的土地, 屠杀尤洛克居民, 并强行将幸存者从他们的传统领土上驱逐出去。它也揭示了从19世纪早期到现在, 尤洛克人对祖先土地的开垦, 文化习俗的复兴, 以及反抗殖民者的殖民主义。在整个美洲, 无数诸如此类的移民殖民旅游景点处于在这种暴力地理位置上。通过发掘这一特殊地点隐藏的暴力地理, 这项研究表明如何在美国和其他地方被盗的土著土地上的其他旅游景点进行去殖民化研究。

Keywords:

• geographies of violence
• natural landscapes
• redwoods
• tourist destination
• tourism imaginary
• Native Americans
• California
• settler colonialism

关键词:

• 暴力地理
• 自然景观
• 红杉
• 旅游目的地
• 旅游想象
• 美国原住民
• 加利福尼亚
• 殖民者
• 殖民主义

Acknowledgments

None.

Author biographical note

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Pierre Walter

Pierre Walter is a Professor of Educational Studies at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. His research in Tourism Studies focuses on community-based ecotourism, visitor and host learning, and decolonizing living history museums.