Hey, It’s John Muir’s Birthday, So Here’s a Reminder of His Racist Legacy
In response to Adventure Journal’s recent piece today glorifying John Muir we decided to offer up our feminist analysis of the racist asshat. We want to acknowledge and give deep gratitude to Jolie Varela of Indigenous Women Hike (IWH) who catalyzed conversations throughout the outdoor industry about the truth of John Muir’s racist legacy, and who continues to teach us so much about what we have intentionally not been taught about the history of this white supremacist country. Give thanks, support (financial or otherwise), and praise to Varela and IWH as often as you can!
In mainstream media, John Muir is called “The Father of Our National Parks,” a “Wilderness Prophet,” and there are too many -- one is too many -- places and buildings named after him, even a minor planet, as fucking ridiculous and absurd as that is. His writing and actions are sorely miscredited as the work of an “environmental hero” instead of the work of a toxic masculine, egocentric, eco-jock. Let’s make this truth go viral, shall we?
An Incomplete List of Examples of John Muir’s Heinous and Inexcusable Racism
John Muir described the indigenous people he encountered on his visits to Ahwahneechee, so-called Yosemite, “most ugly, and some of them altogether hideous.”
In another racist reference to indigenous peoples Muir says, “...they seemed to have no right place in the landscape, and I was glad to see them fading out of sight down the pass.”
He described the Cherokee homes he found as, “the uncouth transitionist …wigwams of savages.” He described the homes of the very settlers who may well have drove them out as, “decked with flowers and vines, clean within and without, and stamped with the comforts of culture and refinement.”
“A strangely dirty and irregular life these dark-eyed, dark-haired, half-happy savages lead in this clean wilderness.” Check out Indigenous Women Hike for more on this quote.
“As to Indians, most of them are dead or civilized into useless innocence.”
In September of 1867 at 29 years old Muir went on a 1,000 mile walk from the Indiana/Kentucky border to the Gulf of Mexico and he reported the laziness of “Sambos.”
“Muir was worried about ‘idle negroes..prowling about everywhere’” -- Samir Chopra writes in the piece, John Muir On the ‘Negroes’ of the American South
Let it be known and etched into our brains that John Muir should not be heralded as a fatherly figure of the natural world -- a patriarchal/white supremacist figure, yes -- but not fatherly. To be fatherly would mean he was affectionate and protective, but his actions have only ever been self-serving as he sought to manufacture a landscape free of those whom he hypocritically deemed “dirty.” It’s pretty dirty to actively have a hand in the forced removal and genocide of multiple communities of people. He didn’t care about the harm he was causing to the original stewards who have lived on Turtle Island for time immemorial.
Muir’s legacy is one of unearned glorification as is the case with any mediocre white man.
Same story, different century today in 2020 with average white men like Yvon Choiunard, Jeff Bezos, and Leonardo DiCaprio who get touted as “environmental heroes” “working on climate change.”
Image via Grist of a still shot from a scene in Always Be My Maybe
So, let’s give a warm and fuzzy “Fuck you, John Muir” to John Muir on his birthday.
If you want to celebrate with us post a photo of you outside and caption it with the true history of John Muir’s legacy. Don’t forget to tag us and add these hashtags: #StopGlorifyingJohnMuir #FuckYouJohnMuir
We’ll share it with the Terra community!
P.S. We highly recommend a book that Jolie Varela put on our radar called Dispossessing the Wilderness by David Spence. A devastating and in-depth read that will give you a more comprehensive understanding of how the national parks came to be.
