Formations of Central Valley Thought

Abstract This essay addresses the objectification facing the Central Valley region of California in the context of settler colonialism and of native ways of life which characterized it prior to settlement. The region was once famous for its wetland ecosystem and has since seen the entirety of its water rerouted for agricultural use. Environmental and political factors defining the region’s contemporary condition are inherited from settler attempts to mitigate the effects of the natural ecosystem on the identity of the native peoples that lived there, particularly by undermining the living relation with water once held by these communities. Various aspects of the ecosystem continue to exert an unsettling effect on local peoples. Educational institutions in the region ultimately reinforce the separation between the local communities and their ecosystem, reestablishing settler structures.