History seen through a Native Plant, Animal, & Peoples’ Lens
time-immemorial
Wyoming’s history begins with stories of the distant past applying Time Immemorial and ethnobotany pathways. We end with a study of the Future because there will be a future: 1) we will solve the challenge of homo sapiens potential self-Extinction and 2) trace how the melding of cultures, that was once thought to be America and Canada’s goal, has been replaced in today’s celebration of cultural diversity achieved, women’s rights guaranteed, and the need for biodiversity preserved. (E.O. Wilson above). Our America’s Far West history begins with 2 topics: Homo Sapiens in the Americas and the Search to Live Fully Realized Lives, start to end.
In 2024 the scientific world was stunned by reports of materials brought back from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu; it is a mud ball created before our Sun’s fire burned 4,600,000,000 years ago. It contains water-formed amino acids, phosphates, uracil and thymine, the building blocks of life. Life appears to be ubiquitous over billions of years. But we humans, known as Homo Sapiens, are but a few 10s of 1,000s of years in existence, perhaps 300,000, perhaps 30,000. We first entered the Americas with immigrating Indigenous Peoples 15,000 years ago … all of us with African Eve as a shared grandmother. We are all brothers and sisters (West Africa pygmies, Artic Eskimos and Sami, South African Hottentots, Incas, Norse Vikings, etc.). We are all Eve’s descendants (mitochondrial DNA attesting), now numbering 8,200,000,000 (growing at 100 million/year). Extinctions of Pacific Rim Native Animals, Plants (900 species in Cascadia, 4,000 in Rocky Mountains) or people are perhaps inevitable after 100,000,000s of years, but do not needlessly have to occur tomorrow, as are occurring with today’s humans’ indifferent and careless treatment of the Earth. Ethnobotanicals are what make all our histories unique, there would be no human history of life without the food, shelter, and medicines provided by native flora … and fauna. The West’s native plant and animal species and native cultures are disappearing. Man-made Extinction events need not occur!
The West could, indeed, offer the Beacons of Light for human behaviors that must evolve. The list of the first U.S. and Canadian entities allowing women the right to vote reads: Wyoming (1869), Colorado (1893), Idaho (1896), Washington (1910), California (1911), Oregon (1912), Arizona (1912 … not part of Rocky Mountains), Montana (1914), Alberta (1916), British Columbia (1917) … long before any in the East. Our histories tell us how our ancestors achieved this. The West forced the hands of our two countries … to do the right thing. We could do it again.
Best knowledge today for this writer (who in 1962 sat as a University of Washington oceanographic/biology major in a classroom without knowing about mitochondrial DNA … because it was not yet been discovered). We now think Hominids have been on Earth for 10 million years. Evolution from chimpanzees (we share 98.2% of their DNA) who wandered onto savannahs in a major climate shift. Various off-shoots occurring over time, 3 million years 1 type, “habilis” learned to use tools, 1 million years ago “erectus” covered Atlantic to Pacific Europe/Asia and Africa (with an off-shoot in Australia). Next “sapiens” with ability to throw spears, use/improve tools (Aug and Og) 300,000 years ago. Perhaps “Eve” our common grandmother (times x) 150,000 years ago, but maybe 30,000 … it makes no difference, Earth covered in ash 18″ from volcanic action 70,000 years ago and it drove “sapiens” population down to pockets total sum et.al. 1,000 to 10,000 individuals (Eve’s descendants overwhelming every other Sapiens and Hominid remaining thereafter) … perhaps by axe or sex, as some of us have a small % of Neanderthal and/or Devonian (1 molar evidence total from Siberia!) in our genes (less than 5%). So, in 30,000 years we’ve gone from a 1,000 count to 8,000,000,000 “people” on this Earth. We are still adding 100,000,000/year. Frightening if you extrapolate to the year 2080 with 2 points: 1) you might call us natural “hunters and gatherers,” but the phrase should be “killers and pillagers” and 2) we humans (from Amazon Pigmies to Artic Eskimos to South African Hottentots) are all brothers and sisters. Our cousins (or ancestors) arrived in the Americas 15,000 years ago, (it could have been 30,000) by chance, via a narrow 280-mile land bridge 42 miles wide from Siberia to Alaska. Sea levels then might have been as much as 500 feet lower than today. It is thought they followed a River of Kelp down the Coast to inhabit all of the Americas. We are commonplace (with perhaps the most amazing organic chemical minds ever to exist); the miracle was Eve!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Short_History_of_Nearly_Everything
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapiens:_A_Brief_History_of_Humankind
https://aipavilion.github.io/docs/hallpike-review.pdf
https://brianweiner.com/history-is-not-there-for-you-to-like-or-dislike-it-is-there-for-you-to-learn-from-it-and-if-it-offends-you-even-better-because-then-you-are-less-likely-to-repeat-it-its-not-yours-for-you/
African Eve’s descendants can be said to be: