The Western Apache's Wisdom Sits In Places

The Western Apache and their Sense of Place The Western Apache Native culture is a very distinct way of life because of the importance they place on place-naming and landscapes. Keith Basso describes the intricate and intriguing methods the Apache employed during the course of their history as a whole to depict and understand the world around them. The idea of Wisdom Sits in Places begins with how the Western Apache sought to orchestrate their path of wisdom by wedding landscapes and places to language and narratives. In the beginning of Wisdom Sits in Places the author travels to the land of the Western Apache to map and observe the geography and relationship the people of the past had with their landscape. To fully understand this, one must realize that the Western Apache named certain geographical areas with names that tell a story much deeper than what the name implies to an outsider. These names come to light when Basso and others begin set out to explore the reservation and place-names; with which they later use to form a more precise and correct map than that used by the natives. …show more content…
What the author means by this, for example, the place-name Trail Goes Down Between Two Hills describes not only the physical landscape, but behind this name is a story with a moral to it. The author’s fellow friends use this example as a way to communicate kindly to their post drunken friend they are happy his sobriety. I find this story very interesting because this is how I try to communicate with people who I believe would benefit from positive