Ecopoetics Along Shorelines

The Ballard Locks represent an area of confluence between treaties, salmon, and US nationalism. Native tribes participated in the parade on July 4, 1917, but this was before gaining citizenship. The route used to be for canoes, but as capitalism required the need for ocean-crossing ships, the Locks were created and the edges of Seattle altered, including erasing the Black River. The language in the video suggests an echo of Manifest Destiny: the jingoistic need to “tame” nature to (white) “man’s” will. The Locks are also the only access-point for salmon, and therefore the only point upholding the treaty with Sammish tribes.