XIYE BASTIDA: I see this dichotomy between wilderness and development.

NARRATOR: On one side of Thomas Cole’s masterwork, storm clouds roll in over untamed wilderness. On the other, a pastoral landscape is bathed in sunlight. This dramatic contrast has been interpreted in numerous ways, representing both a hopeful vision for America’s future and a manifesto for wilderness preservation.

But seen through a contemporary lens, a more ominous metaphor takes shape.

XIYE BASTIDA: My name is Xiye Bastida. I'm a climate activist.

I think that Cole is really calling out the fact that our way of developing, our way of improving the land or making it profitable was pushing nature out, Indigenous people out.

Obviously, at this time, the Indian Removal Act was happening and this act caused a lot of suffering, caused a lot of pain. It pushed Indigenous peoples into reservations that were areas that they had no knowledge of, no connection to.

NARRATOR: Development not only forced Indigenous peoples from their ancestral lands, but also contributed to another threat: climate change. Today, Bastida’s town in Mexico experiences severe flooding. From this vantage point, maybe Cole’s painting offers us more than a magnificent landscape; it also casts shadows over the legacy of our interconnected worlds and histories.

XIYE BASTIDA: There is this really beautiful saying that my dad taught me, which is common to Indigenous communities all around the world, that says “we need to look at the wisdom of the past seven generations to ensure the stability of the future.”