An intertribal protest comprised of thousands of Natives from across the country has formed near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation- alleging that construction of the Energy Transfer Partners’ (ETP) Dakota Access Oil Pipeline near Lake Oahe, a reservoir on the Missouri River, will harm water supplies and also harm or destroy sacred Sioux sites and artifacts.

I felt compelled to re-organize America’s history in my mind. There has been a markedly distinctive threshold or tipping point between each stage, and it has provided me a lens through which, as uncertain as the future is, I see the next transition. Whether the next era is introduced beyond a precipice or a glide will be determined by intent, prowess, and as many culminating events seem to be, chance.

I began to be interested in this topic a few years ago when I spent a year living in Burlington, Vermont. I started hiking while there, and I don’t think I can overstate its transformative affect on my life. Beyond becoming, possibly, my most passionate hobby, many of my spiritual beliefs have evolved from time spent amidst the wilderness and above the tree-line. I’ve always been a spiritual person, but it was the landscape of the Lake Champlain area that most inspired my sense of the mystical, the interconnectedness of all life, and a deep interest in studying the world’s wisdom traditions. It was while hiking the wintry trails of Mt Mansfield, outside of Burlington, and looking out over the Champlain Valley, that I began to consider the timelessness of our environment.