The naming ceremony allows the pristine nature to be used, going against what is typically thought about environmentalism and the preservation of the wilderness.
The risk of disrupting the wilderness is then mitigated as it’s apparent Innocente won’t be directly violating the most pristine of the wilderness, and instead what feels like an extension of their very natural community. 
The earlier struggle to think of Mattapoisett as Native American is reflected again, where the carefully groomed Ecological Indian doesn’t apply to children as Connie forgets how Luciente explained Innocente would be qualified for this experience because she was raised in Mattaposiett and was inherently the ecological subject. Connie, in removing Innocente in this way, is trying to create another ecological other but isn’t able to, isolating her in this community. It also suggests that Connie is inherently distrustful of the wilderness, where she feels it is no place for a child because of the dangerous features within. This reaction, partially provoked by Connie’s having her own child taken away from her, highlights one of Connie’s largest ecologically based fears that keeps her from becoming the ecological subject – the untamed wilderness. 
The problematic nature of environmentalism is highlighted in this dichotomy of tamed and untamed wilderness that Luciente mentions and Connie fears. In discussing Silko’s Almanac of the Dead, Ray explains the critique levied against ecologists who make decisions on what in the environment is worth saving, as well as what is considered invasive or unimportant. These ecologists are working off of the same oppressive structures found that other Connie from the environment based on her skin color; both are motivated to create or preserve the wilderness so much that they must control who or what is in it.
The wilderness isn’t a space where Connie can go, and as suggested by the creation of groups like the Camp Fire Girls and the Fresh Air Charity, all interactions of urban children and the wilderness need to be monitored and have the goal of developing the subjects as environmentalists, otherwise they are contributing to its demise. For Connie, this relationship to the land guides her conflict with Innocente being dropped in the wilderness. Connie, as the only ecological other in Mattapoisett, wants the wilderness to be unreachable for more than just herself, but is shown by how Innocente takes part in and succeeds through the naming ceremony that the environment was never meant to be so othering, and that it was just kept from her. 
Innocente’s naming ceremony is mirrored by Connie’s escape from the mental institute and into the wilderness of New York State, experiencing firsthand wilderness in a stark contrast to what she had previously experienced in the utopia. Connie’s escape is done out of the desire for self preservation, as she sees firsthand the experimental mind control her doctors are planning to inflict on her, and how this operation would forever keep Connie from personal autonomy. Deciding that she must leave the mental institution, Connie orchestrates an escape with the help of the utopia and a ward patient but doesn’t have a plan for what she will do after she leaves the complex and is left in rural upstate New York. 
