"This philosophical essay asks us to think differently about our democratic relationship to national parks. It focuses on Big Bend and Death Valley as two parks that stand in problematic relation to the park idea. The first is situated at the US/Mexico border and is implicated in issues about security and safety, expectations of surveillance and reporting, and even ecological concepts such as native versus invasive species, all of which are inflected by tensions particular to keeping undocumented Mexican immigrants out of American space. The second park is home to the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe, and foregrounds questions of what a homeland is and for whom. The tribe has lived there for centuries, but as of the Homeland Act of 2000, its members are the only people who have the right to live on park grounds, through which non-Timbisha US citizens merely pass as "visitors." These two parks are thus places where the relationships between ideas of nation, ownership, belonging, foreignness, and home are uniquely complicated and on display."--Publisher's description.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 83-91).