Esto perpetua
Each state is its own entity and has its own personality: when one travels to a different state one meets different people and experiences a variety of events. Each state’s characteristics have been written down in lengthy books named the WPA State Guides. The WPA Guides were made during the Great Depression to introduce people to all the 50 states and to provide exhaustive information. These guides help a visitor to further understand the state. State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America, edited by Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey, is made up of essays about the fifty states. Weiland and Wilsey envisioned a compressed collection of essays, not thousands and thousands of pages, but a collection that had a serious look at each state.
Anthony Doerr, the author of Idaho’s essay, is an accomplished author of books such as The Shell Collector, About Grace, Seasons in Rome, and recently, Memory Wall. His books have been twice a New York Times Notable Book and once an American Library Association Book of the Year. Doerr also is the author of many short stories, which have won the Rome Prize, four O. Henry prizes, and several others. He also has a column in The Boston Globe and less often writes Op-Eds for The New York Times. In Doerr’s career he has developed an interest for science and the natural world. He frequently writes about nature and reviews scientific books. Doerr has also worked and lived in both Africa and New Zealand where many of his stories take place. He is now residing in Boise, Idaho with his wife and two sons.
The state of Idaho is located in the northwest, bordering states such as Washington, Oregon, and Nevada. The state is nicknamed the Gem State because nearly every known type of gemstone can be found within its borders. Idaho is a mountainous state with an area equal to New England. Idaho entered the union in 1890, the 43rd state to enter the union. The state’s motto, “Esto perpetua” which means, “Let it be perpetual” shows the state’s attitude towards the future. Idahoans accept change and understand that it will come. Idaho ranks as the 43rd most populous state. The state of Idaho has a history of conflicts with the Native Americans, and during the 19th century, the government was forced to send troops to suppress the local tribes. The result was that a majority of the Native Americans moved to reservations, and warriors like White Bird escaped to Canada.
In the first few paragraphs of the Idaho essay, the reader learns about Doerr’s experience in the mountains of Idaho. “Winter in the mountains of central Idaho and the snow has let up. A slim horn of moon hangs in the gap between two peaks”. He is far away from civilization and in the middle of a large forest. He has mimicked the way the Tukudeka (translated as the “eaters of mountain sheep”) tribe lived so he can further understand them. The Tukudeka tribe followed the old way: “They lived in caves, in clefts of rocks, and in wickiups made of sticks”. The Tukudeka lived in a secluded area far away from any permanent buildings, in forests surrounded by mountains, in one of the most isolated places on the continent. Living like the Tukudeka tribe, Doerr immerses himself in nature in order to experience the habitat they lived in so he can write about how it feels and looks. Doerr camps all alone near a lake, without anyone around him. “I blink into the dimness. My heart roars. The lake I’m camped beside is still. The mountains glow. Nothing. No one.”
The Tukudeka were an ancient tribe who lived high in the mountains in the territory now known as Idaho. They dwelt for over eight thousand years in the mountains surrounding the Salmon River, dubbed the “River of No Return” by the US 21st Infantry, because it was hardly navigable. The tribe still followed the old way, the hard way of living. When the Europeans arrived, the Tukudeka tribe were threatened to leave their land. The Tukudeka however, resisted and the US sent their cavalry. Soldiers who fought the Tukudeka tribe admired their determination to continue to live free, and admired their resistance to such harsh environments. Private Hoffner, a participant in the capture of the Tukudeka, wrote in 1878, “You people of the lowlands… have no idea how the loud thunder can roar or how bright the flashing of the lightning is on the mountain tops.” The Tukudeka settlements can still be traced in Idaho.
Doerr remembers the Tukudeka and has empathy for them, because the Tukudeka had wanted to remain the same, using the old and outdated skills that their ancestors had invented. The people of Idaho can still see the unspoiled habitat of the natives. “Many places the Tukudeka knew are still here: cold green forks of rivers and here-and-there copses of cottonwoods and great broken slopes of volcanic scree aglow with lichen, and clouds like vast men-of-war dragging tentacles of rain across the ridgelines” (Doerr 127). Citizens feel empathy as they walk in the vast landscape of Idaho that the Tukudeka had once lived on. Private Hoffner wrote, “Maybe they were scared; maybe they were furious; maybe they were resigned…everything was on the line: their idioms, their legends, their ancestors, their kids” (Doerr 126).
A state with the motto, “Esto perpetua” meaning, “Let it be perpetual” shows the state’s understanding that change must occur. Things will come and go; Anthony Doerr in the last page of his essay says, “The history of our planet is one of absolutely relentless change. Everything…eventually goes extinct”.