In the 19th century, Americans idealized wilderness, which they defined as natural areas without people in them. The issue with this, of course, was that the “wilderness” areas that they wanted to turn into national parks had people in them.
So what was it like for the people who lived in these “wildernesses,” what happened to them, and what evidence is left of their lives?
https://worldhistory.substack.com/p/only-to-the-white-man-was-nature
