White People, Mother Earth, and the Devil

Photo credit: Zarna Joshi. Canyonlands National Park

How many of the national parks in the USA have you visited?

I’ve been to quite a few. Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Canyonlands, Arches, Black Canyon, Craters of the Moon, Mount Rainier, Olympic, Glacier, Crater Lake, Redwood, Zion, Big Cypress, Everglades, Acadia; these are some of the national parks I’ve visited.

National parks have a deeply problematic history in the USA in that they were created by the white supremacist empire to throw Indigenous peoples off their traditional sacred lands while using those sacred lands to create hunting playgrounds for rich white men. Theodore Roosevelt began this initiative, a US President who was well known to be an avid hunter and an unapologetic racist.

And do you know what I’ve noticed at a lot of the national parks I’ve visited, if not all of them?

They all seem to have some area that is named after the Devil.

Devil’s Overlook, Devil’s Orchard, Devil’s Canyon, Devil’s Tower, Devil’s Garden, Devil’s Den, Devil’s Courthouse, Devil’s Hole, Devil’s Lake, Devil’s Fork, Devil’s Jump, Devil’s Hall, Devil’s Playground, Devil’s Backbone, Devil’s Hike, Devil’s Bridge, Devil’s Stairs, Devil’s Kitchen, Devil’s Slide, Devil’s Churn, Devil’s Peak, Devil Devil Devil. 

In national parks, state parks, regional parks, and on and on. Devil Devil Devil. Oregon has a state park called the Devil’s Punchbowl, because why not?

White people, I know you’re at war with nature but Mother Earth is NOT the Devil.

Photo credit: Zarna Joshi. Arches National Park

Stop imposing Abrahamic supremacy over Indigenous land and stop demonizing Mother Earth. She’s the only reason you’re alive, fool. It’s not her fault you can’t cope with how beautiful and powerful she is and therefore you are constantly trying to destroy her.

In Hindu philosophy, we have a belief that if we meditate on something for long enough, we take on the characteristics of that which we meditate on. That’s why our elders encourage us to meditate on the Divine, so that we develop Divine characteristics like love and compassion and beauty and strength.

Photo credit: Zarna Joshi. Sunset on the Oregon Coast

These colonizing supremacists, however, choose to constantly meditate on the Devil. They see him everywhere they go, even in the most beautiful places in the world. No matter what, they see the Devil and meditate on the Devil and chant the Devil’s name.

And guess what has come from that?

That’s right. They developed the characteristics of the Devil. Violence and hate and destruction and lies and theft and bribery and corruption and war and never-ending pain because Devil Devil Devil.

I’m a Hindu. I don’t even believe in the Devil but my beliefs are irrelevant in this situation because white people believe in the Devil and therefore they have created that evil inside themselves. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.

They then inflict that evil on everyone around them, particularly the Indigenous people of these beautiful lands they’ve colonized and named after the Devil. In other words, they named Indigenous lands - some of the most exquisite examples of Mother Earth’s beauty - after the worst part of themselves.

Nothing could be more Devil-like. Colonizer see Indigenous land, colonizer take Indigenous land, colonizer name Indigenous land after colonizer to complete the theft.

Turtle Island does not belong to the Devil. Turtle Island is Indigenous Land and a part of Mother Earth’s immense beauty.

Mother Earth is NOT the Devil.

Photo credit: Zarna Joshi. Devil’s Orchard, Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve

#SmashThePatriarchy #SmashTheEmpire #SmashWhiteSupremacy