The book explores the impact of human settlement and the resulting changes to the land with our actions. Cronon argues that whilst the Native Americans had a symbiotic relationship with the land they were on, never seeking to own it but to use it for survival, European settlers only sought to gain profit off the land.
Historically, there was a breadth of plant life and a range of animals roaming our lands. However, before this there was an ice age. The changing seasons are important to the impact of human settlement as humans need to cater for the harsh winter months and manage their resources year-round. Native Americans worked around the seasons, which enabled them to maintain their resources and the biodiversity of the land they borrowed from.
The boom also explores early relationships between European colonizers and Native Americas, depicting a friendly relationship between the two. Fur skin and weapons were exchanged between the two groups. However, the relationship fell apart when colonizers spread their diseases to Native American tribes and began to deforest the land.
