There is a woman who roams the western United States in an effort to repopulate wild areas with intentional planting of indigenous plants in the manner of the Native Americans of centuries past that was destroyed by our culture. I’ve not yet met her. I’ve heard much of her through mutual friends and I hope to someday meet her and learn from her.

But right now Finisia cannot do the work that is so important to her – and important for our planet. She was stopped last month by a forest service agent and told she could not do her planting. She resisted and is now sitting in jail in Idaho. I’ve heard through many a spirited story that Finisia has been jailed many times for her acts of civil disobedience – and always takes the incarceration with an open heart and mind.

But this time is different. Finisia is in trouble, I believe. She needs help. The authorities who don’t understand her and her ways are trying to put her in a mental institution, where they can forget about her.

This cannot happen. Please take some time to visit Finisia’s website – pullingforwildflowers.org. Donate money to this woman. I’m told that the fees to release her from jail and to fix her covered wagon only amount to approximately $550.00.

I recently read an article in an old National Geographic magazine from 1973 about a man who walked the west gathering and cooking native foods that grew in wilderness. The story of his passion made a national magazine! Now here we sit 35 years later . . . and one who is trying only to perpetuate this bounty of nature – and not hurting anyone in the process – is being held and labeled as insane simply for leading a lifestyle that is outside the economics of capitalism.

Finisia is in jail simply for the “transgression” of digging her hands in the earth in an effort for conservation.

Again, I ask you to donate to this brave woman. Pullingforwildflowers.org. If you’d like to send a letter of encouragement, please do so:

Finisia Medrano

Lemhi County Jail
Inmate Finisia Medrano
206 Courthouse Drive
Salmon. Idaho 83467

Tags: civil disobedience, conservation, Idaho, indigenous plants

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 9th, 2008 at 12:26 pm and is filed under Re-education, Spirited. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.