Overview

An insightful look at the historical damages early colonizers of America caused and how their descendants may recognize and heal the harm done to the earth and the native peoples Inherited Silence tells the story of beloved land in California’s Napa Valley—how the land fared during the onslaught of colonization and how it fares now in the drought, development, and wildfires that are the consequences of the colonial mind. Author Louise Dunlap’s ancestors were among the first Europeans to claim ownership of traditional lands of the Wappo people during a period of genocide. As settlers, her ancestors lived the dream of Manifest Destiny, their consciousness changing only gradually over the generations. When Dunlap’s generation inherited the land, she had already begun to wonder about its unspoken story. What had kept her ancestors from seeing and telling the truth of their history? What had they brought west with them from the very earliest colonial experience in New England? Dunlap looks back into California’s and America’s history for the key to their silences and a way to heal the wounds of the land, its original people, and the harmful mind of the colonizer. It’s a powerful story that will awaken others to consider their own ancestors’ role in colonization and encourage them to begin reparations for the harmful actions of those who came before. More broadly, it offers a way for every reader to evaluate their own current life actions and the lasting impact they can have on society and our planet.

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9781613321706

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Confronting the wrongs of the past is a way of honouring our ancestors, both those who have come before and those who are yet to come. We need to be taught by the failures and mistakes we have inherited and continue to reproduce in order to enable the possibility that only new mistakes will be made in the future. We need to be able to say: the buck stops here! This book is a step in that direction.--Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti, Professor, Canada Research Chair in Race, Inequalities and Global Change, University of British Columbia How can European descendants of enslavers and colonizers face with honesty the brutal pain and destruction our ancestors wrought? How can we grieve and then begin to heal? In this bold and moving love letter to the land, Louise Dunlap breaks twelve generations of silence. A keen learner from Indigenous peoples and from the land she loves, Dunlap charts out a path toward rehumanization and healing. A beautifully-written memoir that is hard to put down.--Christine Sleeter, Professor Emerita, California State University Monterey Bay; author of Family History in Black and White Louise Dunlap is not afraid to look at the truth and then tell the truth of her early California settler family, a reckoning that becomes an important history of Napa Valley's wine country.--Greg Sarris, Chairman, Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria; author of Becoming Story Louise Dunlap offers the reader a wonderful way of living as a part of the whole: the whole of ourselves, the whole of nature, and the whole of the cosmos. She is a wise Bodhisattva who has dedicated her practice to waking up for the benefit of us all, a courageous being who offers a pathway to decolonize our hearts and minds. And she lets us know that it is possible to do so.----Dr. Larry Ward, author of America's Racial Karma, and Dr. Peggy Rowe Ward, senior dharma teachers in the Thich Nhat Hanh tradition and directors of The Lotus Institute What would Justice and Healing look like when the Land speaks and uncovers the Silence of centuries-old stories of theft and genocide? Now an Elder, Louise Dunlap tells the story of how the Land of the Wappo and Patwin spoke to her heart and soul and gave her the courage to uncover the Silence. I read this book with tears of grief and gratitude and a longing for a deeper sense of justice and healing.--Leny Mendoza Strobel, Founding Elder, Center for Babaylan Studies For those of us still living on the land our ancestors stole for us, Inherited Silence shows us some of the first steps we must take towards healing and repair. Louise demonstrates that this work isn't about disowning our ancestors, but becoming closer to them by telling the truth of their times, committing to transform and transmute the trauma they caused, and not letting racial violence or climate chaos be the final chapter of their legacy.--Morgan Curtis, Ancestors & Money Coach Louise Dunlap, in Inherited Silence, performs work very like a traditional healer with roots and herbs. Deep in the silences, the forests of the past, she unearths painful stories, absorbing them to remove any toxins they may carry. Then with love and compassion, she restores in them the healing properties of the land where they are rooted.--Bobby Marie, community educator and activist, South Africa

Louise Dunlap is not afraid to look at the truth and then tell the truth of her early California settler family, a reckoning that becomes an important history of Napa Valley’s wine country. -- Greg Sarris, Chairman, Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria; author of Becoming Story How can European descendants of enslavers and colonizers face with honesty the brutal pain and destruction our ancestors wrought? How can we grieve and then begin to heal? In this bold and moving love letter to the land, Louise Dunlap breaks twelve generations of silence. A keen learner from Indigenous peoples and from the land she loves, Dunlap charts out a path toward rehumanization and healing. A beautifully-written memoir that is hard to put down. -- Christine Sleeter, Professor Emerita, California State University Monterey Bay; author of Family History in Black and White Louise Dunlap offers the reader a wonderful way of living as a part of the whole: the whole of ourselves, the whole of nature, and the whole of the cosmos. She is a wise Bodhisattva who has dedicated her practice to waking up for the benefit of us all, a courageous being who offers a pathway to decolonize our hearts and minds. And she lets us know that it is possible to do so. -- —Dr. Larry Ward, author of America's Racial Karma, and Dr. Peggy Rowe Ward, senior dharma teachers in the Thich Nhat Hanh tradition and directors of The Lotus Institute What would Justice and Healing look like when the Land speaks and uncovers the Silence of centuries-old stories of theft and genocide? Now an Elder, Louise Dunlap tells the story of how the Land of the Wappo and Patwin spoke to her heart and soul and gave her the courage to uncover the Silence. I read this book with tears of grief and gratitude and a longing for a deeper sense of justice and healing. -- Leny Mendoza Strobel, Founding Elder, Center for Babaylan Studies Confronting the wrongs of the past is a way of honouring our ancestors, both those who have come before and those who are yet to come. We need to be taught by the failures and mistakes we have inherited and continue to reproduce in order to enable the possibility that only new mistakes will be made in the future. We need to be able to say: the buck stops here! This book is a step in that direction. -- Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti, Professor, Canada Research Chair in Race, Inequalities and Global Change, University of British Columbia Louise Dunlap, in Inherited Silence, performs work very like a traditional healer with roots and herbs. Deep in the silences, the forests of the past, she unearths painful stories, absorbing them to remove any toxins they may carry. Then with love and compassion, she restores in them the healing properties of the land where they are rooted. -- Bobby Marie, community educator and activist, South Africa For those of us still living on the land our ancestors stole for us, Inherited Silence shows us some of the first steps we must take towards healing and repair. Louise demonstrates that this work isn't about disowning our ancestors, but becoming closer to them by telling the truth of their times, committing to transform and transmute the trauma they caused, and not letting racial violence or climate chaos be the final chapter of their legacy. -- Morgan Curtis, Ancestors & Money Coach

Author Information

Louise Dunlap is a sixth-generation Californian. She has taught writing to undergraduates and grad students in urban and environmental planning, worked with writers in advocacy groups, wrote Undoing the Silence, and began journeys into the hidden history of white supremacy that led to this book. She honors the spiritual teachings of many traditions and, in 2004, was ordained by Vietnamese Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh into the Order of Interbeing, with the name True Silent Teaching.

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