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Settler colonists arriving in California told stories of a monster, a bear like no one in North America had seen before. Massive, vicious, bloodthirsty. That image of the horrible bear came to be about a lot more than bears. It was about the impossibility of coexistence. It was about the necessity of force. It was part of a larger story that excused and propelled a genocide.
My first feature article for the Washington Post is out today.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2024/04/25/california-grizzly-bear-extinct-reintroduce/