An American Indian Wilderness
A short story by Louis Owens
The Reflective Lone Ranger
In Louis Owens' essay "An American Indian Wilderness" the author projects a self-reflective and, in the end, pessimistic persona. As a young man Owens works as a park ranger in the American Wilderness of Washington State. He has the task of burning down an old log shelter in the wilderness, to return the surrounding area back to its natural state. After completing his task, he meets two elderly Indian women, who tell him that their father had built the shelter in the previous century. He suddenly feels ashamed about what he had just done; however, the two women forgive him and he starts to understand the Indian philosophy in regards to "Mother Nature" and his own detachment with it.
In the first half of the story, Owen recalls that he "felt good and smug" about the job he had just completed, because he was "returning the wilderness to its original state."
He writes that it was a task he "heartily approved of." His feelings change after he meets the two elderly Indian women, as he learns that their father had also been a park ranger, as well as a descendant from the original Indian inhabitants of the "Indian country" he is working in. The two women seem "ancient" to him, probably wise as well and one with nature. They still know about the relationship that humans used to have with nature, before the Europeans "introduced the wilderness" to America.
As Owens' tone turns darker, he realizes that he too "had succumbed to a 500 year old pattern of deadly thinking that separates us [humans] from the natural world." He realizes that the term "wilderness" is an "absurdity" and that there really had...