Eating locally "hearkens back to some values that Americans have always admired, such as sustainability and ingenuity. I feel like our worship of corporate America has totally distorted that. Entrepreneurship and greed have become synonyms."
— Bozeman area resident and self-proclaimed "local food geek" Cherilyn DeVries at the Sabo Ranch event
"I'm not the type of person who needs a war to be patriotic. I think it (patriotism) is about actual land and people — loving the land and loving its wildlife. I try to define it a little differently."
Carl Esbjornson, Bozeman, at Montana Shakespeare in the Parks presentation of "The Tempest"
"I have lived in big cities,
but I think in cities you're cut off
from the wild springs of nature…
I don't know what it is, it's just something inside me I gained from being near wilderness."
-Chamber of Commerce employee and Bozeman resident Robert Ren Harrison (He's taking a picture of me as I interview him :))
"As far as the recession, it hasn't really hit here because our recession hit back in the eighties when the smelter closed."
– Sally Ralston, co-director of the Copper Village Museum and Art Center and a 31-year resident of Anaconda, Montana
On joining the U.S. National Guard at age 25:
"I made pretty much every mistake that a young man can make. Joining the army restores a degree of honor to your relationship with the community around you. And it gave me a chance to go to school."
What about his scheduled deployment to Iraq in summer 2010?
"Soldiers learn to smile and nod…
You have to have that mentality when you're in uniform.
Outside of that uniform, you're dealing with a government that has failed. Soldiers have become expendable tools. "
— Matt Getz, 28, Missoula
This is the same church I went to when I was 9!
"I think the whole concept is wonderful of a country that was built by men of God, under God. I love this country. I grew up being taught how to love America, so I get anxious when I see what's happening… It's like watching an old friend die."
— Pastor Stanton Walker
With the loss of America’s wild terrain, “I am concerned we are losing our souls.”
“…I think the most important thing we can do today is look at our landscape and figure out what matters, why it matters and how to preserve it.”
— Diane Josephy-Peavey, author and sheep and cattle rancher, at Weippe’s annual Camas Festival.
"We need to get back to our grass roots and be thankful that we are American in the land of the free and the home of the brave. We need to get unified and put a lot of thought into that because there are a lot of people that died for us."
— LaLisa Thomason, city clerk and lifelong resident of Craigmont, Idaho, population 556.
Growing up in Portland, "I never imagined myself being anything but a city girl."
Problems with my husband caused me to run away to a reservation in Utah.
I ended up here in Lapwai with my mom and dad.
"The disadvantage (of reservation life) is everyone knows your business. Everyone gets on you real hard. The upside is it's really close."
"I grew up going to sun dances (annual, four-day long ceremonial events) my whole life.
My kids (two sons living with their father in Portland) don't have that.
I feel they are at loss and wish they could be here with me."
I stopped going to the dances when I got married. I went to one while I was having problems in that relationship and it helped me make the decision to leave. It was a "healing experience."
— Natalie Emerson, 29, Lapwai
The cultural wisdom of our ancestors is not gone, but "it's way different now."
"Diabetes is a big problem – everyone eats ice cream and cake… When I was a kid (in Bridgeport, Wash.) we raised rabbits and grew asparagus. I used to fish there."
— Lee Plumley, Lapwai
At the Nez Perce National Historical Park museum, I met park ranger Beth Erdey,
who happens to be getting her PhD in history from Washington State University.
She believes Americans latched onto the idea of the "Indian" early, exaggerating aspects of it, in part, because it was unique and we could claim it as "ours."
"American identity, even while it is so nebulous and complex, is constantly struggling to develop this uniqueness," she says.