The Rains Wept Time in the Badlands: Anthems of Liquid Movement

Plains horse culture began after horses returned from their Asian, Ice Age diaspora with the Ponce De Leon expedition. Despite significant traditions of movement in making environmental knowledge, environmental studies overvalue settlement and its habituations. The gentrification of ecological knowledge disrupts continuity between cultures of movement while invalidating First Peoples' nomadic, ancestral wisdom and the traditions of tramps and contemporary heirs of elemental belonging. This hierarchical division exalts sedentary practice over nomadic life and thereby fulfills environmental studies' Neolithic imperative against the Paleolithic heritage it should rightfully represent.