Today, people try to return what they consider "wilderness" to its original state by removing all human-made objects in the area. They think this is the right way of protecting nature, especially the "wilderness," from being overwhelmed by our civilization. As writing about the issue in his essay, The American Indian Wilderness, Owens's tone is very sorry. He is sorry about what has happened to the wilderness and the long-term influence these ignorant actions will have.
             Owens feels sorry not only for what he has done to the White Pass shelter but also for the ignorance of the plan that he has ratified. What the plan desires to do and what he has done serve nothing more than destroying the originality of the wilderness. Since American Indians have always been a part of nature, the shelter Owens has burnt, as part of their culture, is "as natural a part of the Cascade ecosystem as the burrows of marmots in the steep scree slopes"(Page 213). Owens realizes that the remnants of ancient existences are components of nature, which should be left in the wilderness to make the environment a whole. But people decide to remove them due to their understanding of the wilderness. This understanding, later been criticized by Owens, is "an absurdity, nothing more than a figment of the European imagination"(Page 212). But many people still succumb to this social pattern and ratify the ignorant plans that will lead to Owens's further concerns.
             More than just the actions, Owens feels even more sorry about the influence these actions will have in the long run. After talking with the sisters, Owens begins to take "my (his) ignorance and my (his) part in the long pattern of loss"(Page 212) serious. He admits his ignorance to the culture of the native ancestors and starts worrying about the relationship between human and nature in the future because at the time people set aside the culture of their ancestors, they also set aside the responsibilities th...