Native Americans And Western Culture

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

“We must protect the forests for our children, grandchildren and children yet to be born. We must protect the forests for those who can't speak for themselves such as the birds, animals, fish and trees" Chief Qwatsina’s of the Lakota Tribe. The plain natives, a respectful people, took from the land what they needed and always gave back. The settlers that came thought they were smarter and more advanced than the natives, and viewed the natives as being inferior. In reality it was the exact opposite. It was the settlers that had forgotten that the most basic way of life was the smartest way of life. The settlers were clouded by their “vast knowledge” that they convinced themselves that their way of life was the best and only way of life and

Doing so will help citizens to expand their conceptions of the land and begin to appreciate it’s many resources. Which is equally significant when one considers the recent climate changes and negative effects of human pollution of the earth. Some opponents argue that intrusions of sacred Native American land and that harnessing natural resources from said land is irrelevant in today’s day and age. But it must be argued that this assertion is false and that current events such as the recent standoff at Standing Rock Reservation over crude oil pipelines in North Dakota have proven that this issue is still alive and well in American society.

Throughout history, Native Americans have been known for their ability to use the Earth’s natural resources to their full extent, using any and everything that they are able to get their hands on. For example, in the book Self-Determination: The Other Path of Native Americans, authors Ann M. Carlos and Frank D. Lewis examines the beginnings of what appears to be a budding entrepreneurial like “business” within the Cree Tribe. By the late 17th century, the Cree along with other Native American tribes were apart of the fur trade. They were hunting animals, preparing the pelts, and transporting them to the Hudson Bay Company in exchange for property rights, and European goods. Unfortunately though, Native Americans never even had a chance to be a part of the blossoming United States economic system because with the western expansion of the early United States came regulatory acts for Native American tribes to reservations. Not only was poverty on the rise along with loss of hope, many Native Americans felt their way of life and everything that they have ever known being ripped away from them, and couldn’t do anything about it. Ever since Native Americans were confined to their reservations, and were left trying to begin again with the new way of life that had been forced upon them, many lost the opportunities of wealth and success that the growing nation had to

Animals and the Earth are very important to the Native American culture. In the creation story, it states that “a giant sea turtle rose up out of the water… If the birds placed the woman on his back, she would be able to rest…” (Iroquois 2). This shows how the Native Americans are forever in the turtles dept., therefore promising to always respect all animals.

Native Americans endured a lot of environmental changes. From strangers invading their land to being exposed to many illnesses, these issues changed and shaped the values of many tribes. Newcomers provided the challenge of adapting to new ways of life and cultures, such as being able to hunt better, use weapons to their advantage, and the idea of trading items for more useful items.

Native Americans, also known as Indians, have inhabited the United States for a great deal of time even before the Pre-Columbian Era,”spread southward throughout the Americas and possibly going as far south as the Antarctic peninsula.  This migration may have begun as early as 30,000 years ago and continued through to about 10,000+ years ago, when the land bridge became submerged by the rising sea level caused by the ending of the last glacial period”(Kennedy, Cohen & Bailey 2006, p. 6).  Countless numbers of different tribes and cultures roamed the lands of America from coast to coast; they are the true ancestors of the United States.  These Natives were known for their respect to the land and the people of the land, they thrived off of what mother nature had to offer, and they

When the Europeans came to America, they created new colonies, trade with the Native Americans, and more political freedoms for some. It was a whole new world, an ocean away from the control of their main lands, for the Europeans who had settled on land they thought was their God given right. Soon settlements of hundreds became thousands and people had more rights than they ever had before. However successfully some settlements developed, it came at the cost of the natives that were living there. Making America a new world for not only the Europeans but also for the Indians, the Europeans brought an environmentally destructive fur trade that resulted in the dismantling of the Native American’s traditional and social structures.

Have you ever wondered what America was like before we got here? The Native Americans know, and they wrote many stories describing how they feel about nature. These writings show they worshipped nature greatly and never wanted to disturb it in any way. Then, the Europeans came and disrupted their whole way of life. The invaders, at the time, did not have much respect for the land around them, and the Native Americans did not like that. They thought they might be friendly but ended up not respecting them. They told the Americans through writings like How can you buy or sell the sky?. Some others writings they used to show the Americans their appreciation towards nature were Walum Olum, Song of

Many indigenous religions and cultures viewed the earth with great respect and reverence. This can be seen through their kinship with the land, their belief in animism, their hunter/hunted relationship, and their origin stories.

So truly this proves that sustainability is a wicked problem as there is no way to win. From southern United States, to northern Canada, there is environmental injustice everywhere with no answer in sight. A point that was brought up in these three lectures is that there is nothing I, nor my peers can do. It is up to these people, the Inuit’s and Americans to stand up to their battle, and for us to support them. Especially in America where these people are facing these environmental problems, and yet are voting to worsen it. With most of the population being lower class, and having health issues, they are the people who voted against Obama Care, and voted in Trump who abandoned them after the first major hurricane (pers. comm., R. Bullard, October 26, 2017).

The environment has always been important to Indigenous people because they lived off of the land. Tribes like the Mohawk of the Akwesasne Reservation or the Nottoway Tribe in Virginia depended on the land to provide all the basic needs of life. They did not exhaust their sacred land, but rather, they lived in harmony with it. When the Europeans came over to North America, they didn’t have the same mindset as the indigenous; the Europeans were focused on an economically gain. This mindset led the Europeans to exhaust the land and make a profit off of it. As time went on, not only did the Europeans exhaust the land, but they also began polluting it and dumping their waste with no regard for environment. This had a

Furthermore, the ones that are profiting from these environmental projects are mostly corporations. The federal government and corporations that benefit from these environmental damaging projects have ignored and overlooked “Indigenous rights and claims for centuries. It has only been in the last few decades […] that nation-states and the international community have begun to take a proactive stance toward relinquishing power over resources” (Richmond et al. 2013, 1045). With the creation of the Indian Policy, Non-Native peoples have realized they

They fight for conservation of public lands because it’s apparent that people of their class will be the ones who get the luxury to reap the benefits. The modern language used to discuss climate change also deters or excludes a vast number of people from participating. As Klein mentioned the “large environmental organizations spend their days doing everything in their power to furiously protect” the American way of life, rather than using clime change as an instrument to combat materialism, and high carbon emissions (210). They are more concerned with exercising their privilege under the banner environmentalism to preserve their way of life. When in reality those who are affected by climate change are the poor, marginalized, indigenous, people of color, most predominantly those in the coast region. These groups often can not fight for the environment because they are preoccupied working subsistence. Even though they often face the brunt of the national crisis, climate change, and natural disasters . Natural disasters are non-discriminatory by nature. However, when the government systematically neglects the infrastructure of certain low socioeconomic regions the inhabiters become exponentially more vulnerable. The catastrophic damage done by Hurricane Katrina could have been mitigated if everything wasn’t privatized or based off

Non-Western mindsets have better ideologies toward the environment. Taoism, Buddhism, Native Americans, and Hinduism all have practices that protect nature. Of course, the decision to select Non-Western mindsets is because, I have a personal preference for preserving and helping our environment thrive. As DesJardins points out from the dominate Western religion (pg.154), “Both the Old and New Testaments describe the wilderness as a barren and desolate place.”