On Being "Close to Nature": Identity, Politics, Place

Dominant culture in North America has persistently imagined native place as being "in" or "close to" nature. Ideas about relatedness to or closeness to nature are often used, by those of European descent and natives alike, to place and divide native and white as distinct ethnic groups. But such a notion is a fault line capable of misrepresenting as much it represents, confining members of a group in places they may not inhabit. The word "native" has become a metonym for "nature," and this idea has implications for the kinds of places (both real and fictive) native peoples are permitted to inhabit.