When I read your question, I thought about elephants. There’s evidence that elephants have complex emotions—like grief when their relatives die or affection for humans who help them. Whales, dolphins, non-human primates and even dogs sometimes seem like they have complex emotions, too.
It makes us wonder if animals seek comfort and meaning the same ways humans do—like through religion. We truly don’t know the answer to your question. It’s something people have wondered about for a long time.
Campbell
Exploring deep questions is the work of my friend Joe Campbell. He’s a philosopher at Washington State University.
We often think of religion as beliefs and behaviors. They relate to the supernatural—something beyond us and what we see in the natural world.
Campbell told me that underneath many religious beliefs and behaviors is a feeling: awe. It’s a proto-religious attitude. Proto means first.
Sam Robinson, vice chairman of the Chinook Indian Nation, is “telling the story”
When Sam Robinson arrives at a public event in his distinctive cone-shaped Chinook hat to sing, play his drum and tell stories, what seems like a cultural, broadly spiritual moment is something else too: a political protest.
Vancouver resident Robinson, 66, is vice chairman of the Chinook Indian Nation. His frequent personal appearances aim to reunify and strengthen a tribe that’s been denied, disadvantaged and dispersed by government repression and intertribal competition for close to two centuries.
More than 100 Chinook tribal members and allies gathered outside the Marshall House on Vancouver’s Officers Row to press Congress to pass the Chinook Restoration Act, a law that would bestow federal recognition and start the process of establishing a Chinook reservation.
The Quinault Indian Nation has its own federally recognized reservation, but over the years, ongoing treaty negotiations also designated some Quinault land for several other tribes — first the Quileute, Queets and Hoh people, then later the Chehalis, Chinook and Cowlitz, according to Indian Country Today.
All of those other tribes, except the Chinook, have since succeeded in gaining federal recognition and establishing their own reservations. But Chinook land allotments and hunting and fishing rights on Quinault land remain in dispute. In 2018, Quinault officials said they still want the Chinook to waive any and all rights to their land.
Fountain
“The conflict, from the Quinault perspective, has … centered on tribal sovereignty, specifically whether non-Quinault tribal members can exert their hunting and fishing rights there,” said Steve Fountain, an assistant professor of history at Washington State University Vancouver. “In short, if the Chinook Nation is recognized, Quinaults argue that they will lose control of their own reservation lands and resources.”
The Columbian requested comment from the Quinault Indian Nation and received no reply.
“I think you will find it hard to get anyone to go on record who is directly involved in the opposition,” Fountain told The Columbian.
National Public Radio’s Rhitu Chatteriee interviewed WSU anthropology professor Ed Hagen, among others, to expand understanding of anxiety.
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Americans are anxious. Nearly three years of a pandemic, political unrest and ongoing economic instability have left people feeling fearful, ill at ease. This week, we’re spending some time understanding anxiety. We will kick off the series with a simple question – what is anxiety? NPR’s health correspondent Rhitu Chatterjee went looking for the answer and brings us this story.
RHITU CHATTERJEE: Most of us have experienced anxiety at some point in our lives, and we know how it shows up in our bodies – racing thoughts, struggling to sit still, queasy stomach, sensations that bring a sense of dread.
Hagen
CHATTERJEE: …anxiety can be adaptive. That’s why researchers think that it probably played a key role in human evolution because it alerted our ancestors to threats in their environment. Ed Hagen studies the evolution of emotions and mental illnesses at Washington State University.
ED HAGEN: And if you look at the kinds of things that people tend to be anxious about, they do seem to line up with those kinds of longstanding evolutionary threats.
CHATTERJEE: Like predators, poisonous foods and animals, disease and even social threats.
HAGEN: Most of us are, you know, really concerned that we maintain a good reputation with our friends and group members.
As incarceration rates drop in Washington’s urban and suburban areas, police in rural areas are booking more people into jail often for minor offenses.
Lauren Patterson has the story as a professor of sociology at Washington state University Jennifer Schwartz started to notice a pattern in her research: while urban area incarcerations in Washington are going down, the number of people imprisoned in rural areas is going up.
Schwartz
“It wasn’t the serious transgressions or the serious criminals that are a danger to the community that kept coming back in. It was the sort of minor transgressions that kept the revolving door spinning,” Schwartz said.
Those minor offenses include things like driving with a suspended license or not showing up in court.
Schwartz and her colleague Jennifer Sherman received a three-year grant to continue researching rural incarceration. They hope to find potential solutions for policymakers.
Growing up in the arid landscape of Richland, Washington, hundreds of miles and a mountain range away from the nearest ocean, may seem an unlikely start for a man who would become a leading expert in marine geology and coastal conservation.
Pilkey
But Orrin Pilkey was destined to be a pioneer. With his insatiable curiosity and an education in geology from then-Washington State College, he traveled to the edges of land and sea and launched a new field of science to improve life in both environments.
“Throughout his 65‑year career as a researcher, educator, mentor, and advocate, Dr. Orrin Pilkey has made numerous outstanding contributions to the field of marine geology and to coastal preservation,” said Todd Butler, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “In addition to his positive impact on his discipline, he embodies the outcome of what we strive to accomplish as a college and university: a curious, life-long learner who integrates knowledge from many domains to address complex, real-world problems and issues.”
This year, Pilkey (BS Geology ’57) received the WSU Alumni Association’s Alumni Achievement Award, the organization’s highest honor, in recognition of his distinguished research and education in coastal geology and his public service in policy development and education to preserve America’s coastal resources.
