Many people are under a false impression that early Native Americans are the original environmentalists. This is an impression that many people share. The Abenaki tribes that resided in Maine from 3700 BP were not by our traditional definition, environmentalists. In fact they were far from ecologically sound. This paper is meant not to criticize the Native Americans of the age, but to clarify their roles in the environment. To better understand this subject some background is needed. The Abenaki People of the Northeast led a non-permanent exististance based mostly on the seasonal flux in the region. The area of land now referred to as Maine especially. Maine has always had abrupt seasons and the Abenaki used these seasons to their …show more content…
They used what is known as a diffused substinance pattern. By this we mean that by using resources available to them lightly as opposed to intensely using the same resources, they were conserving for the future. These tribes would spiritualize nature. In this culture everything was significant. They held reverence for the environment and a strong kinship with nature. Often these people observed respectful guidelines to avoid spiritual retaliation. For instance, the bones of the beaver would be returned to the river where it had been trapped. This was believed to keep the beavers there plentiful. As you can clearly see the early Native Americans culture regarding the surrounding ecosystem would probably horrify many ecologists upon first look, but perhaps if we look deeper we can learn a truer meaning to the idea of environmentalism. If we plan to sustain the resources of the earth for our children we must find a balance and end the selfish taking of resources. We can learn much from this
The Apalachee were a group of farming Indians who inhabited Northwest Florida ever since around one thousand A.D. The Apalachee were concentrated around the present day city of Tallahassee, the capital of Florida. In this essay, the diet, traditions, family life, clothing, government, architecture and more about the Apalachee Indians will be explored. A precis of their timeline in the Florida panhandle will also be examined.
In comparison to the Europeans, depending on the region, a lot of Native Americans were largely migrant people who followed resources as needed. Tribes would stay in one area for as long as they could utilize whatever was in season and then moved forward once the land’s resources had nothing left to offer. Hunting and gathering forced tribes to relocate quite often due to the different seasons’ impact on game and plants. Even though agriculture was not a reliable source of sustainability for these people, Indians often found ways to make use of whatever herbs and plants grew around them. Low environmental impact and zero waste are two very important values to Indians as they have a very spiritual connected to the earth. In other parts of the country, Indians used agriculture quite a lot and even found ways to make their crops last through the winter. Some tribes established themselves fairly prominently in one area, but a key difference between their establishment and the English’s was their inherent view that no matter what they yielded from the land, it was not their property to claim forever. The Native Americans really
Imagine beautiful yellow and red leaves fluttering about, and men and women working together to collect wild rice from the lake, naming rituals, sowing, and honor. That is what the Sioux tribe did during the early 1800s when Lewis and Clark explored the region. This tribe lived along the minnesota- Wisconsin border, they believed in honored and spirits. Overall, they were skill at hand, and trad was probable fantastic for the Sioux. Most of the Sioux clothing was showered with beads, so they got a lot of pratus sewing and became vary skilled.
The Native American’s way of living was different from the Europeans. They believed that man is ruled by respect and reverence for nature and that nature is an
The Natives built and lived in many small teepees, small dwellings, along with massive adobe homes in the woods using the materials they had found among the land
The idea that First Nations (here on referred to as FN) in North America always lived in harmony with the environment has been a very controversial and touchy subject when under debate by historians. The language barrier and lack of written information leaves a lot to speculation and the chance of oral history being slightly changed over time leaves biases in the works of historians. This paper, however will argue the concept that FN indeed lived in harmony with nature as they were able to learn from their mistakes and treated the environment and nature with respect to ensure that the coming years would guarantee a plentiful harvest and would protect the lakes, river and nature around them. The FN had been able to realize the effects of
The Paiutes are a Native American Indian tribe “made up of several bands throughout the western part of the United States, also known as the Great Basin region” (Ruby 222). The Northern Paiutes populated areas of Oregon, California, Nevada, and Idaho; and inquiries as to how the environment might have affected their interactions, migration, and social behavior is a topic of great interest in Oregon archeology. The Northern Paiutes “who practiced the ancestral lifeway well into the 19th century, were heirs to an extremely ancient cultural tradition” (Aikens 13). Historical archeological studies found that these groups often “made tools, gathered plants, and hunted animals of similar if not identical kinds” (Aikens 13). Through these similar identities,
Additionally, Royal gives clarification for Native Americans’ positive stereotypes. He explains, “ But this is far from modern concepts of ecology. Native Americans in fact overhunted deer and beaver even before the arrival of the white man, and did not seriously try to preserve the resources in the vicinity of their villages. As a result, the typical woodland village, having exhausted local soil and game, had to move on average every eight to 10 years” (Royal 47). Although the Native Americans did not destroy the environment like Europeans on such a large scale, they are not trying to protect the environment either. This opposes the stereotypes that Native Americans are model ecologists. Royal also examines the inhumane sides of Native American tribes. Royal reveals, “The
Indians and Colonists saw the wilderness from different environmental history perspectives which changed how each treated nature. In the essay “Interpreting Environmental History,” Carolyn Merchant describes three lenses to look through when thinking about environmental history; gender, race, and class. From the gender lens in the Native American lifestyle,
The first Europeans who saw the coast of pre-colonial New England thought of it as untapped virgin lands that had infinite resources. Cronon talks about how Henry Thoreau described the woods where Native Americans lived as “more open and parklike appearance to the first English settlers, without the underbrush and coppice growth so common in nineteenth-century Concord” (Cronon, pg 5). They didn’t realize that there were Native American inhabitants on the land as well. These Indians were already changing the environment by burning parts of forests to grow crops. The interaction of
In “Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists and the Ecology of New England”, William Cronan breaks down the changes in New England that occurred after the shift from Indian to European dominance. In the first chapter of the book, Cronan goes into detail about the ecological history of New England. This detail expands on the changes that plant and wildlife population encountered during this shift from Indian to European life. As the shift occurred it created changes in the way those inhabitants live their lives, but it also created changes in plant production and wildlife. Cronan introduces us to his argument by stating that the physical affects that were created are from the Indian and European peoples due to agriculture, hunting, establishments,
Woodland Indians inhabited the large geographical area in eastern North America. The varying climates and four seasons affected how each individual group of Indians lived and ate. The Appalachian mountains and Great Lakes prohibited movement of people to some extent. Some people were able to harness the shoreline water as a means of transportation. Gardening and harvesting of crops became a way of life for these people but was sometimes complicated by the harsh winter conditions in northern Wisconsin. Utilization of natural resources controlled the economy. These Indians were very knowledgeable about the trees and plant life in their area. They used the abundant wildlife as part of their
Like many eager non native environmentalists, waiting to be engulfed by the green revolution, I saw the Indigenous culture as a link that could bring me closer to the earth. I believed that the generation of biodiversity could only
The people nowadays also abuse on what nature can provide to them. People are influenced by the western Culture, Man is more powerful and can have dominion over nature and that nature as they see become merely an instrument to satisfy human needs and wants. This kind of thinking or we can say attitude towards nature is called the “Anthropocentric Attitude”. Man reduce the value of nature as it is and it’s important because nature has made all things specifically for the sake of man and that the value of non-human things in nature is merely instrumental. An opposite thinking would be the Eastern Culture, for they value nature very well and they treat nature being one with them. This thinking or attitude is known as “Ecocentric
The film “Here and Now” discusses Native American’s historical relationship with the land, and the cultural tie the people hold to the plants and animals. It goes on to define a “new era” of partnership and caring for the land with the original stewards, and emphasize the importance of healing the Earth (Here and Now). Tying into that, Historical Ecology, the study of the interaction between humans and their environment, focuses on landscape transformations (Sunseri 03/01). This study of the past has explicit implications on our understanding of the future and allows us to better comprehend what must be done to protect and conserve our natural