Storying Extinction: Responding to the Loss of North Idaho's Mountain Caribou
Multidisciplinary, "deep map" essaying of the extirpation of North Idaho's Caribou population.
Creator: Jack Kredell and Chris Lamb
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Sedimentation is deeply inspired by the many historians, geographers, political ecologists, journalists, activists, and river-lovers who have thought deeply about Glen Canyon or other sites of human-nature interaction.
Below are the works that I have found to be the most exciting, enlightening, and moving.
If you’d like to learn more about Glen Canyon’s history, human-nature relations, or spatial storytelling, I hope you’ll find this is a good place to start.
On Human-Nature Relations
The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins
Synopsis excerpt: By investigating one of the world’s most sought-after fungi, The Mushroom at the End of the World presents an original examination into the relation between capitalist destruction and collaborative survival within multispecies landscapes, the prerequisite for continuing life on earth.
Read it here
Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait
Synopsis excerpt: The unforgiving territories along the Bering Strait had long been home to humans—the Iñupiat and Yupik in Alaska, and the Yupik and Chukchi in Russia—before American and European colonization. Rapidly, these frigid lands and waters became the site of an ongoing experiment: How, under conditions of extreme scarcity, would modern ideologies of capitalism and communism control and manage the resources they craved?
Read it here
Underflows: Queer Trans Ecologies and River Justice
Synopsis excerpt: Rivers host vibrant multispecies communities in their waters and along their banks, and, according to queer-trans-feminist river scientist Cleo Wölfle Hazard, their future vitality requires centering the values of justice, sovereignty, and dynamism.
Read it hereOn Glen Canyon
The Foundations of Glen Canyon Dam: Infrastructures of Dispossession on the Colorado Plateau
Synopsis excerpt: Erika Marie Bsumek reorients the story of the Glen Canyon Dam to reveal a pattern of Indigenous erasure by weaving together the stories of religious settlers and Indigenous peoples, engineers and biologists, and politicians and spiritual leaders.
Read it here
Life After Deadpool: Lake Powell’s Last Days and the Rebirth of the Colorado River
Synopsis excerpt: A changing climate and design flaws in the Glen Canyon Dam have pushed the once-massive Lake Powell reservoir to the brink of collapse. Now, as Glen Canyon reemerges, its surprising ecological rebirth reminds us that nature’s capacity to heal may well outpace our own imaginations. Environmental journalist Zak Podmore explores the complex challenges ahead and reframes the inevitable loss of Lake Powell as a turning point for a more sustainable future.
Read it here
Dead Pool: Lake Powell, Global Warming, and the Future of Water in the West
Synopsis excerpt: Dead Pool explains why America built the dam that made Lake Powell and others like it and then allowed its citizens to become dependent on their benefits, which were always temporary. Writing for a wide audience, Powell shows us exactly why an urgent threat during the first half of the twenty-first century will come not from the rising of the seas but from the falling of the reservoirs.
Read it here
Glen Canyon Dammed: Inventing Lake Powell and the Canyon Country
Synopsis excerpt: Jared Farmer traces the history of exploration and development in the Four Corners region, discusses the role of tourism in changing the face of the West, and shows how the “invention” of Lake Powell has served multiple needs.
Read it here
*All My Rivers are Gone: A Journey of Discovery Through Glen Canyon
Synopsis excerpt: Glen Canyon and the river that ran through it changed Katie Lee’s life. She’d made sixteen trips down the river, even named some of the side canyons. Her descriptions of a magnificent desert oasis and its rich archaeological ruins are a paean to paradise lost.
Read it here
Carbon Sovereignty: Coal, Development, and Energy Transition in the Navajo Nation
Synopsis excerpt: Geographer Andrew Curley, a member of the Navajo Nation, examines the history of coal development within the Navajo Nation, including why some Diné supported coal and the consequences of doing so.
Read it here
“Colonial Becoming: An Unfolding Story of the Colorado River”
Abstract excerpt: This paper argues that the Colorado River is a story of ‘colonial becoming,’ the making of a ‘resource’ for purposes of diversion, irrigation, and ultimately dispossession. The paper works first to show how settler-colonialists defined ‘the river,’ then linked it to projects of empire informed by a colonial ontology that saw the desert as bereft of life and needing improvement.
Read it here
“Infrastructures as colonial beachheads: The Central Arizona Project and the taking of Navajo resources”
Abstract excerpt: This article accounts for the colonial politics necessary to bring Colorado River water into Phoenix and Tucson. It highlights how the following moments worked to enlarge Arizona’s population and power while denying Diné water claims: the 1922 Colorado Compact, Arizona’s 1960s campaign for the Central Arizona Project, and recent Indian water settlements between Arizona and Navajo Nation.
Read it here
Sacrilege in Dinétah: Native Encounters with Glen Canyon Dam
Abstract Excerpt: This dissertation spotlights indigenous encounters with Glen Canyon Dam and places Native peoples, especially the Diné, at the center of the dam story.
Read it here
DamNation: The Problem with Hydropower
This documentary, produced by Patagonia films, explores the damage wrought by dams across the United States. A large portion of the film focuses on Glen Canyon and Katie Lee’s trips though it.
Read it hereOn Sediment
“Sedimentary Justice: A Planetary Politics of Shifting Sediment”
Kate Dawson highlights the injustices borne by sediment management as sediment is extracted from some sites in order to produce wealth and power in others. She calls for greater attention to sedimentary politics and distribution.
Read it here
“The social life of sediment”
Abstract excerpt: This article introduces the concept of the “social life of sediment,” that is, the idea that the existence and movement of sediment is entwined with social needs, values, and activities, and needs to be appraised in his historical dimension.
Read it hereOn Spatial and Lively Narratives
“Building a Geospatial Archive of Species Loss as Response to Local Caribou Extinction”
Abstract excerpt: This article argues that a multidisciplinary synthesis of GIS, digital, and narrative approaches is critical for communicating and exploring shifting spatial relations in the era of the Anthropocene and sixth mass extinction.
Read it here
Deep Maps and Spatial Narratives
Synopsis excerpt: The essays in this book investigates the practice of deep mapping. Deep maps are finely detailed, multimedia depictions of a place and the people, buildings, objects, flora, and fauna that exist within it and which are inseparable from the activities of everyday life.
Read it here
For Space
Synopsis excerpt: In this book, Doreen Massey makes an impassioned argument for revitalising our imagination of space. She takes on some well-established assumptions from philosophy, and some familiar ways of characterising the twenty-first century world, and shows how they restrain our understanding of both the challenge and the potential of space.
Read it here- Abe, Shige. “A Pothole in the Road of Life.” NASA Astrobiology Institute, NASA, 2002, astrobiology.nasa.gov/nai/articles/2002/5/6/a-pothole-in-the-road-of-life/index.html
- Anderson, Ben. “Affective atmospheres.” Emotion, Space and Society 2 (2), 2009, pp. 79,78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emospa.2009.08.005
- Bsumek, Erika Marie. The Foundations of Glen Canyon Dam: Infrastructures of Dispossession on the Colorado Plateau. University of Texas Press, 2023.
- Bunnell JE, Garcia LV, Furst JM, Lerch H, Olea RA, Suitt SE, Kolker A. “Navajo coal combustion and respiratory health near Shiprock, New Mexico.” J Environ Public Health. 2010;2010:260525. doi: 10.1155/2010/260525. Epub 2010 Jun 30. PMID: 20671946; PMCID: PMC2910467.
- Bureau of Reclamation. Lake Powell Storage Data. Bureau of Reclamation, 12 October 2025. https://www.usbr.gov/uc/water/hydrodata/reservoir_data/919/dashboard.html#csv/
- Cordova, Viola F. “The Concept of Monism in Navajo Thought.” (1992), pp. 70, 100, 92. https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/phil_etds/29.
- Courlander, Harold. The Fourth World of the Hopis: The Epic Story of the Hopi Indians as Preserved in Their Legends and Traditions. University of New Mexico Press, 1987, p. 26. https://www.unmpress.com/9780826310118/the-fourth-world-of-the-hopis/
- Curley, Andrew. “Infrastructures as Colonial Beachheads: The Central Arizona Project and the Taking of Navajo Resources.” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, vol. 39, no. 3, June 2021, p. 399, doi.org/10.1177/0263775821991537
- Curley, Andrew. “Infrastructures as Colonial Beachheads: The Central Arizona Project and the Taking of Navajo Resources.” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, vol. 39, no. 3, June 2021, pp. 387–404. https://journals-sagepub-com.uidaho.idm.oclc.org/doi/10.1177/0263775821991537
- Deleuze, Gilles, and Félix Guattari. A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Translated by Brian Massumi, University of Minnesota Press, 1987.
- Derrida, Jacques, and Eric Prenowitz. “Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression.” Diacritics, vol. 25, no. 2, 1995, pp. 9–63. JSTOR, p. 10. https://doi.org/10.2307/465144
- Derrida, Jacques. Speech and Phenomena: And Other Essays on Husserl’s Theory of Signs. Northwestern University Press, 1973, p.4.
- Dominy, Floyd. Lake Powell: Jewell of the Colorado. U.S. Department of the Interior, 1965, p. 9. https://collections.lib.utah.edu/details?id=1142754
- Eriksen, C.H. and D. Belk. Fairy Shrimps of California’s Puddles, Pools, and Playas. Mad River Press, Inc., 1999.
- Farmer, Jared. Glen Canyon Dammed: Inventing Lake Powell and the Canyon Country. University of Arizona Press, 1999, p. 79.
- Fedarko, Kevin. A Walk in the Park: The True Story of A Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon. Scribner, 2024, p. 10. https://www.grandcanyon.org/products/simon-schuster-consumer-grp-a-walk-in-the-park-true-story-1002275
- Fletcher, Colin. The Man Who Walked Through Time. Vintage Books, 1989, p. 6. https://www.grandcanyon.org/products/man-who-walked-thru-time-1-24
- Ghosh, Amitav. The Great Derangement. University of Chicago Press, 2016, p. 27. https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/G/bo22265507.html
- Gibson-Graham, J. K. “Diverse Economies: Performative Practices for `Other Worlds’.” Progress in Human Geography, vol. 32, no. 5, Oct. 2008, pp. 613–32. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132508090821, p. 614.
- Hager, Alex. “Busy Beavers Are Building Back as Lake Powell Retreats.” KUER, 30 Oct. 2025, kuer.org/science-environment/2025-10-30/busy-beavers-are-building-back-as-lake-powell-retreats
- Ingebresten, Richard. “Floyd Dominy built the Glen Canyon Dam, then he sketched its end on a napkin.” The Salt Lake Tribune, August 28, 2022. https://www.sltrib.com/news/environment/2022/08/28/floyd-dominy-built-glen-canyon/
- James, Erin. “Narration.” Narrative in the Anthropocene. The Ohio State University Press, 2022, p. 19. https://ohiostatepress.org/books/titles/9780814215074.html
- Kimmerer, Robin Wall. “Learning the Grammar of Animacy.” Braiding Sweetgrass, Milkweed Editions, 2013, p. 55. https://milkweed.org/book/braiding-sweetgrass
- Kuhn, Eric, and John Fleck. Science Be Dammed: How Ignoring Inconvenient Science Drained the Colorado River. University of Arizona Press, 2021.
- Lee, Katie, and Terry Tempest Williams. All My Rivers Are Gone: A Journey of Discovery through Glen Canyon. 1st ed., Johnson Books, 1998. pp. 165-166.
- Lindholm, M. “Morphologically Conservative but Physiologically Diverse: The Mode of Stasis in Anostraca (Crustacea: Branchiopoda).” Evol Biol 41, pp. 503–507, 2014.
- Luckert, Karl. Navajo Mountain and Rainbow Bridge Religion. The Museum of Northern Arizona, 1977, p. 121.
- Lyell, Charles. Principles of Geology. 4th ed., vol. 1, John Murray, Alebemarle Street, 1834, p. 109.
- Massey, Doreen. For Space. SAGE Publications, 2005, p. 110.
- Mazzini, Adriano, and Giuseppe Etiope. “Mud volcanism: An updated review.” Earth-Science Reviews, vol. 168, May 2017, pp. 81-112. ScienceDirect, accessed 19 October 2025, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2017.03.001
- McNeley, James Kale. Holy Wind in Navajo Philosophy. University of Arizona Press, 1981, p.35 https://uapress.arizona.edu/book/holy-wind-in-navajo-philosophy.
- Meko, D.M., Woodhouse, C.A., Baisan, C.A., Knight, T., Lukas, J.J., Hughes, M.K., and Salzer, M.W. “Medieval Drought in the Upper Colorado River Basin.” Geophysical Research Letters. 34, L10705, 2007. https://www.treeflow.info/content/colorado-r-lees-ferry-az-meko
- Minckley, W.L., et al. “A Conservation Plan for Native Fishes of the Lower Colorado River.” BioScience, vol. 53, no. 3, 2003, pp. 219–234.
- Murphy, Michelle. “Alterlife and Decolonial Chemical Relations.” Cultural Anthropology, vol. 32, no. 4, 2017, pp. 494–503. https://doi.org/10.14506/ca32.4.02
- Mustoe, G. E. “The origin of honeycomb weathering.” Geological Society of America Bulletin, vol. 93, 1982, pp. 108-115 https://doi.org/10.1130/0016-7606(1982)93<108:TOOHW>2.0.CO;2.
- National Park Service, “Chapter 5: Issues and Conflicts I: Rainbow Bridge Religion and Navajo Legal Claims, 1863-1998” Rainbow Bridge National Monument Administrative History, 2008.
- Nichols, Tad. River Journal, Colorado River [constructed title], 1956, 1957. p. 24. Colorado Plateau Archives, Colorado Plateau Digital Collections, Northern Arizona University. Cline Library, accessed 19 October 2025, https://archive.library.nau.edu/digital/collection/cpa/id/60150/rec/13
- Nocita, Bruce W. “Pedestal rocks in the Pliocene Puye Formation, New Mexico.” Sedimentary Geology, vol. 49, issues 3-4, October 1986, pp. 193-200. ScienceDirect, accessed 19 October 2025, https://doi.org/10.1016/0037-0738(86)90038-2.
- Ogden, Laura A. Loss and Wonder at the World’s End. Duke University Press, 2021, p. 5. https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478021865.
- Pasqual, Teresa. Communities of Movement: Ancestral Puebloans. World History Project, 2023.
- Podmore, Zak. Life After Dead Pool: Lake Powell’s Last Days and the Rebirth of the Colorado River. Torrey House Press, 2024.https://www.torreyhouse.org/life-after-dead-pool
- Powell, James Lawrence. Dead Pool: Lake Powell, Global Warming, and the Future of Water in the West. University of California Press, 2020, p. 131. https://www.ucpress.edu/books/dead-pool/paper
- Powell, John Wesley. “The Irrigable lands of the arid region” The Century Magazine, 1890
- Powell, John Wesley. The Canyons of the Colorado Flood & Vincent, 1895, p. 83.
- Robert S. McPherson, Sacred Land, Sacred View: Navajo Perceptions of the Four Corners Region, Charles Redd Monographs in Western History, no. 19, Provo, Utah: Charles Redd Center for Western Studies, Brigham Young University, 1992, p. 68.
- Roberts, G.G., et al. “An Uplift History of the Colorado Plateau and Its Surroundings from Inverse Modeling of Longitudinal River Profiles.” Tectonics, vol. 31, 2012. doi.org/10.1029/2012TC003107
- Ruse, Michael. Monad to Man: The Concept of Progress in Evolutionary Biology. Harvard University Press, 1996.
- Silko, Leslie Marmon. “Interior and Exterior Landscapes: The Pueblo Migration Stories.” Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit: Essays on Native American Life Today, Simon & Schuster, 1997, p. 27-28
- Smith, Jen Rose. Ice Geographies: The Colonial Politics of Race and Indigeneity in the Arctic. Duke University Press, 2025.https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478060758
- T.H. Painter, J.S. Deems, J. Belnap, A.F. Hamlet, C.C. Landry, & B. Udall, “Response of Colorado River runoff to dust radiative forcing in snow.” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 2010. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0913139107
- Tape, Carl. “The Lower Jurassic Navajo Sandstone: large-scale deposition and small-scale structures.” nhmu.utah.edu, 2005. https://nhmu.utah.edu/sites/default/files/trail-resource/Navajo%20Sandstone.pdf.
- Thompson, Jonathan. “The 26,000 Tons of Radioactive Waste under Lake Powell” High Country News, 18 December 2017, https://www.hcn.org/articles/pollution-a-26-000-ton-pile-of-radioactive-waste-lies-under-the-waters-and-silt-of-lake-powell/
- Todd, Zoe. “An Indigenous Feminist’s Take on the Ontological Turn: ‘Ontology’ is Just Another Word for Colonialism.” Journal of Historical Sociology 29, no. 1, 2016, p. 16. https://doi.org/10.1111/johs.12124
- Tsing, Anna. Feral Atlas: The-More-Than-Human Anthropocene, 2021. https://feralatlas.org/
- United States, Congress. “Upper Colorado River Basin; Purpose of Development of Water Resources; Initial Units; Construction of Wayne N. Aspinall Unit Contingent Upon Certification; Participating Projects; Rainbow Bridge National Monument.” United States Code, title 43, chapter 12B, § 620, 2011 ed., U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.govinfo.gov/app/details/USCODE-2011-title43/USCODE-2011-title43-chap12B-sec620.
- United States, National Park Service. “Frequently Asked Questions - Rainbow Bridge National Monument.” National Park Service, 17 Apr. 2025, www.nps.gov/rabr/faqs.htm
- Webb, Roy. “Robert Brewster Stanton: The Man and His River.” Canyon Legacy Dan O’Laurie Museum, no. 12, Winter 1991, p. 10.
- Weber B, et al. “What is a biocrust? A refined, contemporary definition for a broadening research community.” Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc. 2022. doi:10.1111/brv.12862
- Williams, A.P., Cook, B.I. & Smerdon, J.E. “Rapid intensification of the emerging southwestern North American megadrought in 2020–2021.” Nat. Clim. Chang. 12, 2022, pp. 232-234. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01290-z
- Williams, Ted. “Recovery: Humpback Chubs, New Values and New Hope for Endangered Native Fish.” Cool Green Science, The Nature Conservancy, 25 Oct. 2016. blog.nature.org/2016/10/25/recovery-humpback-chubs-new-values-and-new-hope-for-endangered-native-fish/
- Williams, Ted. “Sometimes, It’s Trout That Have to Be Killed.” High Country News, 21 Apr. 2003, www.hcn.org/wotr/sometimes-its-trout-that-have-to-bekilled/
- Wood, Denis. The Power of Maps. The Guilford Press, 1992, p. 1
- Zaske, Sara, et al. “Methane Emissions from Reservoirs Are Increasing.” WSU Insider, WSU Insider, 19 September 2022, https://news.wsu.edu/news/2022/09/19/methane-emissions-from-reservoirs-are-increasing/
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