To begin, we need to unsee the current maps of highways and industry and consider this young wrinkle which began forming 80 million years ago and then paused to exist in its present state 35 million years ago. By comparison, the Rockies are much newer than the Appalachian range which formed 500 million years ago. All of this makes clear that anything we say or do in our individual lifetimes may very likely be forgotten one day … unless we learn stories that echo the land itself which will retell them long after we are gone.

The Nimiipuu people, also known in modern times as the Nez Perce, have a story of creation that narrates western geomorphology and reminds us we are diverse and yet connected. It begins with Coyote setting his fish weirs to catch salmon when he is interrupted by Meadowlark who points out that he need not do that any longer because the people have gone. Coyote abandons his work and sets off to meet the one who has swallowed all the people. He finds this mythic character in the land and speaks to a great head rising up out of the earth with parts unknown buried beneath the surface. Coyote says to this monstrous one:

We can see the truth of this story in maps. One such example is “The North America tapestry of time and terrain,” which traces the earth’s development through the interrelation of rock type, topography, and time. Continent-scale tectonic events are exposed in three dimensions of space with geologic time represented as a fourth dimension. The map, which includes the path of the Continental Divide, is a reminder the earth appears solid because a mixture of four types of rock (sedimentary, volcanic, plutonic, and metamorphic) are the blood, bones, breath, and body of the being Coyote encountered. As the digital image of Figure 1.1 (https://pubs.usgs.gov/imap/i2781/) details, the ripples of motion and convergence of diverse matter show up clearly on the map, highlighting the activity that created the Rockies and, in Coyote’s story, the people.

Another way to view this same space is by looking at the system of waterways that connect the surface to the seas. As we acknowledge the land, we acknowledge the water because the shifting plates of land that form mountains and valleys are altered by the liquid core of the earth. One reason the earth spewed several types of people in that valley where Coyote found an open face is that the Kamiah Valley is the heart of the Rockies and the intersection of several watersheds. In his map of the river basins Robert Szucs illustrates the same reality, showing how different river systems echo the position of plates. In the space where Coyote spoke of eight types of people, there is clearly a natural convergence of land and water (Figure 1.2).

Where we see this repeating convergence of land and water we also find a network of related languages and cultures. On the map of riverways, the colors converge where the Rockies rose up. From this elevated location, the rain falls and drains into three different sets of rivers. The Rio Grande, Arkansas, Platte, Yellowstone, Missouri, and Saskatchewan drain toward the Atlantic Ocean. The Peace, Athabasca, and Liard rivers flow into the Arctic. The Colorado, Columbia, Snake, Fraser, and Yukon rivers bend toward the Pacific. Around this system of watersheds, different ways of being in the world met and diverged. For centuries people organized themselves this way. In this complex space, languages evolved and confederacies were formed. The Salishan language family in the northwest; the Algic language family to the Northeast and Southeast; the Siouan languages due east; the Uto-Aztecan family to the south; and the Sahaptian family at the center. These linguistic genealogies are another way to understand the story of this place. From sediment to riverways to the languages that flow from human minds, we see that nature is not something to be passively observed or commodified; it is a system of life sustained.

Across the globe, language families create natural alliances often recognized in the form of confederacies. This is the reason that linguistic genocide was a key tactic in nation building. To refuse to recognize the language of someone, or to consider their language unworthy of continuity, has always been an effective form of dominance. And by contrast, the ability to learn and translate other languages is the foundation of diplomacy and lasting peace. A look at the map of Lewis and Clark’s expedition (Figure 1.3) shows the diversity they encountered as they named and numbered the souls held safe in the folds of the Rockies. Between the note “These Mountains are covered with Snow” and the label “Rocky Mountains” are names for rivers and tributaries along with an anecdotal census of Indigenous people. For example, the Black Foot Indians are estimated to number 3500 souls, the Chopunnish (the Nimiipuu) 8000, the Sketsomish (Coeur d’Alene) 2600, and the Shoshone 4000 souls among many others. Although this data was gathered using mixed methods not likely considered accurate today, even these crude estimates highlight social systems organized around the land and water with language as a marker of difference. On March 18, 1806, William Clark wrote: “The Indians repeated to us the names of eighteen distinct tribes residing on the S. E. coast who spoke the Killamucks language, and beyound those six others who spoke a different language which they did not comprehend.”³ This and other similar comments make clear the way language can serve as a map of ecological knowledge, history, areas of specialization, and politics. Visitors to unceded territories west of the United States in the 1800s who were attentive to Indigenous languages and stories found communities who had been for centuries encoding their connection to the land and water in place names and stories.

Today the region is contained within the boundaries of the United States and Canada, but the federally recognized nations still trace the same ancient logic. It is important to remember these histories. The westward expansion resulted in new names, false names, and pan-tribal generalization that eventually resulted in the misnomer “Indian” blurring and then erasing important distinctions. Everyone living in the area should learn to stand at the center of the Rocky Mountain region and know what and who holds stories in each direction.

A map of the western sovereign nations in the United States shows how language and culture can still be traced on the land. The map of language families and current nations (Figure 1.4) shows 30 of more than 500 nations in the United States and each is part of a linguistic network. Northwest of the Rockies is the southern tip of the Salish language family which extends to the Pacific Coast. The Coeur d’Alene (1) speak Snchitsu’umshtsn which is closely related to the Salish spoken by the Kalispel (2 and 4) (mentioned in Coyote’s story as the Pend d’Oreilles) and Bitterroot people (3) (mentioned in the story as the Flathead (5)). Northeast of the Rockies members of the Blackfeet Nation (6) speak Siksika, the citizens of Rocky Boy (7) speak Oji-Cree and the Gros Ventre (8) historically also spoke a language in the Algic language family. To the east the Crow (10) people speak Apsaalooke and the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux (9) use Siouan languages. In the Great Salt Lake and Desert area south of the Rockies the Shoshone, Paiute, and Ute people speak languages in the Uto-Aztecan family (12–26). At the center, where Coyote roamed, are the Nimiipuu who retell his tale in Nimipuutmt which is a language of the Sahaptian family (27–29). The Cayuse mentioned in Coyote’s story call themselves Liksiyu and were near neighbors to the Nimiipuu. Their language is not well documented and lingers mostly in the reports of other speakers who describe it as like their own. They live today in Oregon with the Umatilla and the Walla Walla tribes on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (30).

The stories of these nations confirm and continue their relationship with the land. Many of them are working to ensure the old words remain a part of their lives. In 1908 Clark Wissler recorded a Siksika story about linguistic diversity and its connection to the mountains. After a flood, Napi, the trickster teacher also known as Old Man, called for a gathering of the people where he gave them water of different colors. The Blackfoot, Piegan, and Blood all received black water. When everyone spoke, they found those with the same-colored water could understand one another. This is a lesson in the need for linguistic and cultural diversity and the importance of understanding how we are shaped by place.

Every society is shaped by the land and water that sustains it. In modern times the land and water have been viewed as commodities which are in increasingly short supply, but an older view reminds us that everywhere on earth, where the mantle of sediment swells or the waters flow or gather, there is a natural relationship between the planet and the people. Although the time scale differs greatly, both are constantly evolving and the best way to truly understand the connection is to always listen to the stories and the web they weave bet...