[ 12.2013 | Yosemite ]
I first came to the US in December 2013, when I visited my best friend who took a sabbatical at a wellknown Californian university. and to distract her from her duties as a professor and to regain a feeling of time and space after intense months at university, we decided to go on an adventurous/explorative trip to Yosemity National Park.
the park covers an area of more than 3thousand km² – an area that is internationally recognized for its granite cliffs and mighty glaciers, clear lakes and powerful waterfalls, giant sequoia groves and wild planes – being home of a rich biological diversity. almost 95% of the park is designated wilderness that is visited by about 3.8million people each year. Yosemite has been crucial in developing the idea of national parks and was designated a World Heritage Site in 1984.
following the paths through the park it was easy for us not only to imagine but to observe wild deer and the little mountain lion roaming freely, but also spectacularly feathered beings. and natives – as native as could be. admittedly, there is absolutely no comparison between our hike and the long wanderings of the first nomadic Native Americans coming from far north (what is today Alaska) more than 12,000years ago. it has been estimated that – by the time European adventurers/explorers like Christopher Columbus arrived in the 15th century – more than 50million people were already living in what today is called the United States of America.
in pictures, Native Americans are sometimes shown smoking a ceremonial pipe. today, on the International Day of Peace, we imagine it to be a peace pipe. World Peace Day is dedicated to the absence of war and violence and was first celebrated in 1982 [ note: a good year to get good things started ]. in 2013, it was first dedicated to peace education by the Secretary-General of the United Nations. peace education, the key preventive means to reduce war sustainably. imagine…
sources: nps.gov |
history.com | indians.org | un.org