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Marketing the Wilderness: Outdoor Recreation, Indigenous Activism, and the Battle over Public Lands
How outdoor industry marketing shapes our understanding of “the wilderness” as an unpeopled haven
Marketing the Wilderness analyzes the relationship between the outdoor recreation industry, public lands in the United States, and Indigenous sovereignty and representation in recreational spaces. Combining social media analysis, digital ethnography, and historical research, Joseph Whitson offers nuanced insights into more than a century of the outdoor recreation industry’s marketing strategies, unraveling its complicity in settler colonialism.
Complicating the narrative of outdoor recreation as a universal good, Whitson introduces the concept of “wildernessing” to describe the physical, legal, and rhetorical production of pristine, empty lands that undergirds the outdoor recreation industry, a process that further disenfranchises Indigenous people from whom these lands were stolen. He demonstrates how companies such as Patagonia and REI align with the mining and drilling industries in their need to remove Indigenous peoples and histories from valuable lands. At the same time, he describes the ways Indigenous and decolonial activists are subverting and resisting corporate marketing strategies to introduce new narratives of place.
Through the lens of environmental justice activism, Marketing the Wilderness reconsiders the ethics of recreational land use, advocating for engagement with issues of cultural representation and appropriation informed by Indigenous perspectives. As he discusses contemporary public land advocacy around places such as Bears Ears National Monument, Whitson focuses on the deeply fraught relationship between the outdoor recreation industry and Indigenous communities. Emphasizing the power of the corporate system and its treatment of land as a commodity under capitalism, he shows how these tensions have shaped the American idea of “wilderness” and what it means to fight for its preservation.
Retail e-book files for this title are screen-reader friendly with images accompanied by short alt text and/or extended descriptions.
Marketing the Wilderness analyzes the relationship between the outdoor recreation industry, public lands in the United States, and Indigenous sovereignty and representation in recreational spaces. Combining social media analysis, digital ethnography, and historical research, Joseph Whitson offers nuanced insights into more than a century of the outdoor recreation industry’s marketing strategies, unraveling its complicity in settler colonialism.
Complicating the narrative of outdoor recreation as a universal good, Whitson introduces the concept of “wildernessing” to describe the physical, legal, and rhetorical production of pristine, empty lands that undergirds the outdoor recreation industry, a process that further disenfranchises Indigenous people from whom these lands were stolen. He demonstrates how companies such as Patagonia and REI align with the mining and drilling industries in their need to remove Indigenous peoples and histories from valuable lands. At the same time, he describes the ways Indigenous and decolonial activists are subverting and resisting corporate marketing strategies to introduce new narratives of place.
Through the lens of environmental justice activism, Marketing the Wilderness reconsiders the ethics of recreational land use, advocating for engagement with issues of cultural representation and appropriation informed by Indigenous perspectives. As he discusses contemporary public land advocacy around places such as Bears Ears National Monument, Whitson focuses on the deeply fraught relationship between the outdoor recreation industry and Indigenous communities. Emphasizing the power of the corporate system and its treatment of land as a commodity under capitalism, he shows how these tensions have shaped the American idea of “wilderness” and what it means to fight for its preservation.
Retail e-book files for this title are screen-reader friendly with images accompanied by short alt text and/or extended descriptions.
240 pages, Hardcover
Published May 20, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 2, 2025
What if the outdoor industry isn’t just selling gear but an entire way of seeing the world?
This book is about how brands like Patagonia and REI helped shape the American idea of “wilderness” and how that idea impacts Indigenous people, public land, and our own encounters with nature.
It's about how the images we choose, the stories we tell, and the values we promote don’t just reflect reality, they build it.
In Marketing the Wilderness looks at:
+ How “pristine nature” became a brand
+ How the outdoor recreation industry benefit from narratives of emptiness
+ How Indigenous and decolonial activists are creating new narratives of care, belonging, and resistance
If you care about land, storytelling, or the power of ideas—this conversation includes you.
(I wrote his book, so I'm biased, but it was 5 stars worth of work to write if nothing else.)
This book is about how brands like Patagonia and REI helped shape the American idea of “wilderness” and how that idea impacts Indigenous people, public land, and our own encounters with nature.
It's about how the images we choose, the stories we tell, and the values we promote don’t just reflect reality, they build it.
In Marketing the Wilderness looks at:
+ How “pristine nature” became a brand
+ How the outdoor recreation industry benefit from narratives of emptiness
+ How Indigenous and decolonial activists are creating new narratives of care, belonging, and resistance
If you care about land, storytelling, or the power of ideas—this conversation includes you.
(I wrote his book, so I'm biased, but it was 5 stars worth of work to write if nothing else.)
September 11, 2026
I would recommend excepts/ chapters of this book but I would not recommend this book.
June 21, 2025
- I received an advanced copy of the book from University of Minnesota Press and my interview with the author will be published on the Network in Canadian History and Environment website (niche-canada.org) in late July 2025 -
Whitson adeptly uses the outdoor recreation industry to demonstrate the way in which the wilderness concept has enabled profit and exploitation of parks and other public lands. What makes Marketing the Wilderness particularly readable is the way in which Whitson covers a great deal of ground, quite quickly, seamlessly moving from the development of wilderness mythology, to its evolution and cooptation by the outdoor industry in the mid-twentieth century, to Indigenous activism in digital spaces in the present-day. Whitson demonstrates how to use social media as an effective source to understanding current sociocultural trends, applying a level of nuance that both acknowledges the problems of private, algorithm-driven social media communications and the ways in which groups and individuals have used these platforms to build connections and organize effective social movements. I recommend this book to anyone who interacts with the outdoor industry and participates in outdoor recreation on public lands.
Whitson adeptly uses the outdoor recreation industry to demonstrate the way in which the wilderness concept has enabled profit and exploitation of parks and other public lands. What makes Marketing the Wilderness particularly readable is the way in which Whitson covers a great deal of ground, quite quickly, seamlessly moving from the development of wilderness mythology, to its evolution and cooptation by the outdoor industry in the mid-twentieth century, to Indigenous activism in digital spaces in the present-day. Whitson demonstrates how to use social media as an effective source to understanding current sociocultural trends, applying a level of nuance that both acknowledges the problems of private, algorithm-driven social media communications and the ways in which groups and individuals have used these platforms to build connections and organize effective social movements. I recommend this book to anyone who interacts with the outdoor industry and participates in outdoor recreation on public lands.
November 3, 2025
Excellent analysis of the creation of the outdoors. I do similar research into how the “outdoors is not real.” This work echos that thesis while expanding on indigenous activism. A story that isn’t told as much as it should be.
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May 17, 2026took me forever to read this between january and now but it was good and a really fast read once i sat down and did it. i love when i read a book and find out a bunch of stuff i believed based on vibes and anecdotes is actually supported by evidence
July 25, 2026
Despite a few minor quibbles, this is a really important study, especially for anyone of settler heritage working in land management/conservation narrative-adjacent fields.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews