While walking through the Central District or downtown, I often think about the unnatural forces that shaped the Seattle we know today: housing policy, colonialism, concrete, brick, trade. But, of course, the abundance of capital in our city was preceded by the region's natural abundance—especially that of the Duwamish River. In her book The River that Made Seattle, author and Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition founder BJ Cummings dives deep into the history of the river, its centrality to both the Duwamish people and settlers over the centuries, and how this essential waterway became a waste dumping ground. The book also "explores the previously unrecorded Native and immigrant histories, and exposes settler falsehoods about the founding of the state." by Jas Keimig