When the forest fell, did writers hear it? Wayfinding a piecework quilt vision of the lost Great Lakes forest
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Authors
Carroll, Sarah Geddes
Issue Date
2024-12-06
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Abstract
An 11,000-year-old post-glacial forest once stretched across the land surrounding Lakes Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior. Over the course of roughly 1850 to 1910, this forest was decimated by European colonizing forces, including settler farmers, the United States and Canadian governments, and the lumber, railroad, and mining industries. In terms of climate degradation, the extent of this loss is difficult to fathom and painful to contemplate. Coextensive with this destruction was the genocide and removal by colonizing forces of the Indigenous people who inhabited and stewarded these lands. Guided by the Polynesian principle of wayfinding, that is, understanding where you have been in order to know where you are and envision where you are headed, this paper argues it is essential this loss be comprehended. Using the piecework quilt structure of a border that creates a negative space to frame individual quilt blocks that contrast and stand out, this paper assembles and analyzes various written accounts of the Great Lakes Forest to help understand what was lost when these forests were destroyed, and why it happened.