“Make the desert blossom like the rose”: Animal Acclimatization, Settler Colonialism, and the Construction of Oregon's Nature

Abstract

In 1881, Owen Denny introduced the ring-necked pheasant to Oregon as a game bird for sport hunters. The bird, originally from China, was soon adopted into American culture in Oregon and later established presence in nineteen other states. In this research article, Barrie Ryne Blatchford explores the species’ introduction as well as how “the pheasant’s importation to Oregon was a product of, and later a touchstone within, American settler-colonialism — the multi-faceted ideology that alleged Euro-American superiority, marginalized Indigenous peoples, and glorified the renovation of landscapes in accordance with Euro-American norms and imperatives.”