Abstract

Hidden from view, underneath the tourism landscape of the California redwoods, is a genocidal settler colonial history of warfare, massacres, and forced removal of Native Americans from their ancestral lands. This history has been ignored in the touristic narrative of people and place presented by a redwoods attraction in northern California, which are rife with unacknowledged histories and geographies of violence. Framed by scholarship on violent geographies in tourism development, this study shows how redwoods tourism has erased Indigenous people and history from the landscape, and how new ‘power-laden’ tourism imaginaries have been created in their place. The new tourism narrative is found in the spatial layout, interpretive signage, exhibits, website, museum of Native American artifacts, and interpretive trails in a roadside attraction called Trees of Mystery. Secondary historical literature and maps of local Yurok ancestral territory and land ownership construct a counter-narrative of the site's geography and history. Findings reveal a fanciful settler colonial history highlighting heroic male loggers on the ‘frontier’, and representations of ingenious Native Americans as historic people who produced beautiful tools, clothing and artwork but are now defeated, dead, and exotic. In fact, white settlers, backed by the U.S. Army and local militias, appropriated and logged Native American redwood lands, and in doing so massacred resident Yurok People and forced the survivors from their traditional territories. Conversely, the Yurok People have been reclaiming ancestral lands, reviving cultural practices, and resisting settler colonialism from the early 1800s to the present-day. Across the Americas, countless other settler colonial tourism sites like these sit upon violent geographies. Unearthing the hidden geography of this particular site shows how decolonizing research might be undertaken at other tourism sites situated on stolen Indigenous lands in the U.S. and beyond.

摘要

在加州红杉的旅游景观之下，隐藏着一段种族灭绝的定居者殖民历史，包括战争、屠杀和强迫美洲原住民离开他们祖先的土地。这段历史在北加州红杉景点所呈现的人物和地点的旅游叙事中被忽略了，那里充斥着未被承认的暴力历史和地理。以旅游业发展中的暴力地理学术为框架，这项研究展示了红杉旅游业如何从景观中抹去土著人民和历史，以及如何在他们的位置创造新的“充满权力”的旅游想象。新的旅游叙事存在于空间布局、解释性标牌、展品、网站、美洲原住民文物博物馆、以及名为“神秘之树”的路边景点中的解说小径。二手历史文献和当地 Yurok 祖先领地和土地所有权的地图构成了对该遗址地理和历史的反叙事。调查结果揭示了一个幻想的定居者殖民历史，突出了“边境”上英勇的男性伐木者，以及将聪明的美洲原住民描述为历史人物，他们生产了漂亮的工具、服装和艺术品，但现在被击败、死亡和充满异国情调。事实上，在美国军队和当地民兵的支持下，白人定居者侵占并砍伐了美洲原住民的红杉林地，并在这样做的过程中屠杀了当地的尤洛克人，并迫使幸存者离开他们的传统领土。相反，尤洛克人一直在开垦祖先的土地，复兴文化习俗，以及从 1800 年代初期到现在抵制定居者的殖民主义。在整个美洲，无数像这样的其他定居者殖民地旅游景点坐落在充满暴力的地理环境中。发掘这个特定地点的隐藏地理表明，如何在位于美国及其他地区被盗土著土地上的其他旅游景点进行非殖民化研究。