I want to thank [[Tiya Miles]] for her book Wild Girls: how the outdoors shaped the women who challenged a nation, a short (128 pages) introduction to a combination of African American, Native American and European women of the 1800s in what has become the United States of America. According to Miles these women used their experiences in nature as well as their communities both to challenge & organize these communities. I'm not sure that academia would call Mile's book a strong thesis, but I enjoyed reading about these women and their experiences. A few of them I had heard of; many I had not.

For me, the most intriguing section was “Game Changers” (Chapter 3) which focused on the development of federal boarding schools for Native American children (prefigured, according to the author, by Sacajewea's travels with the Lewis & Clark expedition.)

The conclusion, “Blue Moons” focusses on a few women in the twentieth century: [[Grace Lee Boggs]] (Chinese American, memoir [Living for Change]) who became an advocate of urban farming & cooperative community in Detroit; Delores Huerta, Mexican American labor activist; and [[Octavia Butler]], African American speculative fiction writer. I think I may be due a reread of her [Parable of the Sower] and [Parable of the Talents]. ( )