Mysteries of the Mountain: Environmental Racism and Political Action in Percival Everett’s Watershed
Keywords:
environmental racism, Percival Everett, Watershed, environmental justice, Native Americans, political actionAbstract
This article analyzes Percival Everett’s novel Watershed as a critique of environmental racism and political action. The paper explores how the novel connects the poisoning of Plata Creek to the deliberate targeting of minority communities for exposure to toxic waste, a phenomenon termed 'environmental racism' by Rev. Benjamin Chavis. The study examines the protagonist Robert Hawks, a hydrologist who becomes involved in the Plata Indians’ fight for environmental justice after discovering a secret depot of biological weapons contaminating their water supply. The article argues that the novel portrays the US government’s callousness towards Native Americans as a form of environmental genocide, highlighting the continuity of racial ideology in environmental injustices. The author contends that Hawks’ personal transformation mirrors the broader environmental justice movement, which aims to transcend ethnic boundaries for a common social and ecological agenda. This work investigates how Everett avoids simplistic polarizations, presenting complex characters and ambiguous alliances that are brought together by environmental factors.
(The abstract and keywords were prepared retrospectively for indexing purposes using AI-assisted tools and editorial review, based on the original article. They did not appear in the original publication.)
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