Opinion
Native, earth relations not always harmonious
Story by Emma Schmautz | March 6, 2008
Montana Kaimin
During last week’s installment of the President’s Lecture Series, leading American Indian activist and environmentalist Winona LaDuke urged her audience to take inspiration from native tribes to solve problems of energy sustainability in today’s society.
While certain knowledge about proper land use and environmental protection might be gained from some American Indian tribes, it is important not to hold an idealized view of history.
People’s negative influence on the environment is nothing new.
There is a common utopian picture that American Indians all lived in complete harmony with the land, never used their environment beyond its capacity, and always kept a balance between taking and giving back to Mother Earth. This is nonsense.
Large populations of people, regardless of whether they are American Indian or white or any other race, when living in a certain area, will have a large impact on their surrounding environment.
For example, a recent study by University of Utah archaeologist Jack Broughton discovered that California was not always the Eden of milk and honey people imagined.
By analyzing 5,736 bird bones from American Indian dumping grounds, as well as researching the history of fish and mammal populations, Broughton determined that California’s historical native tribes hunted the state’s wildlife to near extinction. It was only after European diseases killed thousands of natives in the 1500s that California’s wildlife, including geese, elk and deer, flourished again.
The Anasazi tribe, who encompassed populations of pueblo dwellers in the Four Corners region of the Southwest, was also guilty of environmental degradation. Poor farming techniques that depleted the soil of minerals, deforestation leading to erosion and lack of wood for fuel, over-hunting that caused widespread starvation and brutal wars over water rights all contributed to the collapse of the ancient civilization.
We can take lessons from the past, but we should also remember how valuable new technology and innovation is in helping the world solve energy and resource issues.
“We believe we are able to outsmart the oceans and winds,” LaDuke said. “We are foolish.”
Perhaps we can’t outsmart the oceans and the winds, but we can harness them. Advanced technology allowing us to capture energy from winds and tides has provided entire towns and portions of cities with electricity.
We should not hold a nostalgic longing for a past we image to be pristine. Instead, we should view historical societies as they actually were and use their failures, along with their accomplishments, to help guide us in making current decisions about our environment and natural resources.
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Comments
Some relevant quotes from “Ecological Indian Talk” (http://www.bluecorncomics.com/ecotalk.htm):
The white man seeks to conquer nature, to bend it to his will and to use it wastefully until it is all gone and then he simply moves on, leaving the waste behind him and looking for new places to take. The whole white race is a monster who is always hungry and what he eats is land.
--Chiksika (Kispokotha Shawnee), elder brother of Tecumseh, speaking to Tecumseh, March 19, 1779
A long time ago this land belonged to our fathers; but when I go up to the river I see camps of soldiers on its banks. These soldiers cut down my timber; they kill my buffalo; and when I see that, my heart feels like bursting; I feel sorry....Has the white man become a child that he should recklessly kill and not eat? When the red men slay game, they do so that they may live and not starve.
--Satanta (Kiowa), quoted in New York Times, October 26, 1867
Of the 3,700,000 buffalo destroyed from 1872 through 1874, only 150,000 were killed by Indians. When a group of concerned Texans asked General (Philip) Sheridan if something should not be done to stop the white hunters’ wholesale slaughter, he replied: “Let them kill, skin and sell until the buffalo is exterminated, as it is the only way to bring lasting peace and allow civilization to advance.”
--Dee Brown, “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee”
Posted by Rob Schmidt on 03/06/2008 at 9:11 am
This is an excellent example of the larger society speaking for American Indians, giving absolute authority of a “University Study”.
This article was not meant for the eyes of a American Indian but descendents of European Colonists.
A story like this could very easily be used against Native Tribes of North America, we must not trust this type of media. Such media “opinions” have been used before, lets see, somewhere in Europe I do believe.
I truly believe this is a small strand in a much larger, continuing effort.
Posted by John Timothy on 03/06/2008 at 9:37 am
The claim about California tribes almost driving wildlife to extinction seems extremely flippant to me. I do not see how, by simply examining dumping grounds, anyone could objectively come to this conclusion.
You might come to the conclusion that these tribes ate a lot of animals, but to deduct a near-extinction event seems ridiculous- unless you have access to the (nonexistant) wildlife management records of the 1500’s.
One statement I can definitely agree on is that “Large populations of people… when living in a certain area, will have a large impact on their surrounding environment.”
Yes this is true. And it does bear out in the Americas. There are undeniable signs of the exaustion of resources around indigenous urban centers- this is common of any large concentration of people. However, it is important to note that the chinampa system of agriculture and irrigation practiced by the Nahua-speaking tribes in the valley of Mexico at the time of Cortez’s conquest remains, to this day (and it is still in use) one of the most ecologically sustainable and renewable systems of crop production in the world, if not the most.
Yes, the “iron-eyes Cody” idealism of Native people as being in perpetual ultimate harmony with the earth is by and large a way for bleeding heart white liberals to atone for the role of their ancestors in the conquest of the Americas. It is usually a generalization of plains-tribe hunter-gatherer lifeways (which always do, in fact, tend to be low-impact) onto all indigenous peoples by those who usually know or care very little about contemporary issues facing Native communities.
However, I detect the same current of over-generalization and apathy towards contemporary problems in the shaky “Indians raped and pillaged the land” argument expressed in this piece.
Let’s not forget that there was no concept of “Native identity” before 1492. We are talking about vastly different nations, cultures and lifeways throughout tremendously various reigions. To make any genralization one way or another is to entirely miss the point.
Posted by Charles Copeland on 03/06/2008 at 11:42 am
I can’t believe what my eyes just seen/"read", not until the white mans desease came and almost wiped us out, did the animals survive. How obsurd!! And “they” would believe what they read because “they don’t know any better”.
Posted by Norma Corwin on 03/06/2008 at 1:39 pm
Its always like that whenever there is a study on the Ikce wicasa of this land. Such as the theory that we came across the land bridge. Never once thinking that maybe it went the other way and that we are the living ancestors of them. all we have to remember is that they were not there and all they have are theories and are only trying to get over their guilt trip of what happened here. doksa relatives
Posted by pisko nighthawk on 03/06/2008 at 2:11 pm
Emma Shmautz what point are really trying to make? “It is important to not hold an idealized view of history” Is this as it applies to Indians only? European diseases killing thousands of natives sounds like a blessing according to you. Do you proof read your articles or are you truly that dense to not see the hurtfulness in that statement alone? The things people say and do continue to amaze me. perhaps you need some type of sensitivity training or better yet got to your nearest reservation and assist the elderly and learn respect.
Posted by Bonnie Baxter on 03/06/2008 at 6:07 pm
It saddens me that we (whites) have been so destructive and still to this day there are some that are this naive, inconsiderate, and uneducated.
Posted by Rose Benton on 03/06/2008 at 8:22 pm
Bonnie,
Schmautz usually writes contrarian editorials, and often they seem to focus more on being different than being informative.
This one is no different.
A typical conservative argument technique is to highlight an isolated example and then argue that it represents the entire spectrum.
The abuses discovered in one or two isolated Indian tribes can not be representative of a long-running and archaeologically proven history of environmentally responsible and sustainable agriculture and life.
But instead, Schmautz argues that, because one tribe killed off a bunch of birds, that the entire history of Native Americans is tainted.
Nobody argues that history reflects Indians as being completely without flaws. But it is irresponsible to history—and childishly reactionary—to highlight one archaeological study as a reason to distrust centuries of tradition.
I can tell Schmautz spent a bit of time on this editorial.
But sadly, it is among her most poorly argued this year. It is simply an illogical—and potentially dangerous—exercise in denial.
Posted by Fred Stapleton on 03/07/2008 at 2:21 am
