The Hoop and Nomadism

Been on a year+ research project exploring nomadism, (have a thesis I'm testing: that nomadic peoples perform necessary information transfer for humanity), and I've come across a lot of interesting case studies of people living nomadically in other parts of the world, but not much of anything in the USA. Sure, we've got hobos and vanlifers, but groups of people with some sort of identity and cohesion are hard to find. I do remember we had some Romani in Chicago that I met growing up. But it seemed like they gave up the nomadic life when they came to the US (I could be wrong, it's hard to find info about nomads, written word is not so important to them).

But I finally found something! It was in episode 656 of the podcast Immediatism. Basically groups of anarchists making circuits over areas of the pacific northwest, foraging and replanting wild food, tending wild gardens. In many cases, using circuits that indigenous peoples had used prior to colonization. There is no centralized authority or organization, but there is a name that keeps coming up: Finisia Medrano. A sort of quasi-spiritual eldar of the movement.

Besides the three sources linked below, I haven't found much information (again with oral tradition being more important than the written word for nomads). I'm under the impression that there are a few lifers doing this year after year, but the vast majority are young people trying out the life for a while, then moving on.

There is a connection with the broader Rewilding movement, guerrilla gardening, climate change activism, sustainability, and definitely anarchism. Which of course is why I find it so interesting, but I'm also interested because finding more info seems to be impossible! I'm probably not looking in the right places, or maybe more info just doesn't exist until someone who's been there and walked the Hoop can fill me in.

Finisia Medrano died a few years ago, there's a Youtube channel bearing her name, with a smattering of videos by her. Not much though, probably only 2 hours worth, I've watched probably about 45 minutes worth, there's a good dose of weirdness, but also wisdom and goodness and a real love of the land.

Sources:

1. https://web.archive.org/web/20240714075300/https://www.petermichaelbauer.com/rewilding-take-it-to-the-hoop/

2. https://web.archive.org/web/20240906063513/https://trumpeter.athabascau.ca/index.php/trumpet/article/view/1491/1711

3. https://web.archive.org/web/20240614045222/https://dark-mountain.net/weeds-to-rewild-you/