Robert Aquinas McNally

Labor Day weekend marks the 55th anniversary of my maiden backpack into the High Sierra. Awe was about to happen. Read it here.

Project 2025's blueprint for Christian nationalist autocracy calls for repealing the law. For wild spaces and the tribes, that's bad. Read it here.

Only a minority of the Native Californians destroyed in the 19th century fell to gunshot, knife, or hatchet. Genocide has less ghoulish ways to wreak its lethal harm. Read about it here.

For over a century after Yosemite's conquest, tribal people lived and worked in the national park. That couldn't last, of course. Read about it here.

Conquest turned in part on renaming conquered land to erase the least presence of the tribes. Then there were the lice. Conquest turned in part on renaming conquered land to erase the least presence of the tribes. Then there were the lice. Read it here.

Now it's cars in long lines and tourists in sunburned throngs. Back in the day, the valley's granite grandeur became a killing field. Read it here.

The state of California never hesitated to raise the money and pay the bills for its campaign to wipe out the tribes. Read it here.

International law raises such a high bar that even some of the worst atrocities fall short. Still, California in the 19th century makes the cut. Read it here.

Just over five years ago, Governor Gavin Newsom made a startling public admission: California is guilty. Now the state wants to do better. Read the backstory and a progress report here.

Let's stop to marvel at the miracle of mountains. Read it here.