First Americans, First Ecologists?

Townhall.com ^ | Wednesday, June 18, 2008 | Michael Medved

[ZULU]

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/nativeamericans/chieflogan.htm

“I appeal to any white man to say if he ever entered Logan’s cabin hungry, and he gave him not meat; if he ever came cold and naked and he clothed him not. During the course of the last long and bloody war, Logan remained idle in his cabin, an advocate for peace.

Such was my love for the whites, that my countrymen pointed as I passed, and said, “Logan is a friend of the white man.” I have even thought to live with you but for the injuries of one man, Colonel Cresap, who last spring in cold blood and unprovoked murdered the relatives of Logan, not even sparing his wife and children.

There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature. This has called on me for revenge. I have sought it; I have killed many; I have fully glutted my vengeance.

For my country, I rejoice in the beams of peace.
But do not harbor a thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan? Not one.”

Amerindian speakers gave pretty moving speeches. Oration was a neccessary social skill in their society. People in preliterate societies had better memories than we do.

And English translators often had a poor grasp of the language they were interpreting and used literary license freely to fill in the gaps.

I always remembered the above speech by Chief Logan.

[ZULU]

I think it is inaccurate to extrapolate what we see today and assume that was the practise years ago. And I don;t think that one notices today about one group of hunters can be cited as a rule for all Amerindians.

No doubt the first Ameridians were profligate hunters. But their hunting in no way compared with the self-admitted and luridly described massacres of game animals along the railroad tracks of the west or circle hunts back east in earlier days. I doubt if any Indians in historic or prehistoric times killed game without any intention of utilizing what they took. If for no other reason, hunting was much harder and the energy expended substantial.

[U S Army EOD]

OK, that will do, I couldn’t come up with anything.

[coconutt2000]

If it goes beyond hugging is that tree abuse?

So long as the tree is of a certain age and doesn't say, "no" then it would be considered consensual... at least in California.

[Thombo2]

“Had a tough time too;hated them people”Why’s that?

[Eska]

Because it was the first time I had been in a different culture in my entire life within America. A culture that looks 180 from what the typical American culture is to most people in our country. Their entire value system & world view is quite different. I was judging everything from what I had learned was right & wrong & the Law of the Land. Indians ignore any part of the law or our social system that doesn't fit within theirs. I was the only white boy in the village, the white teacher; trying to foster positive ethics to help these kids develop into responsible citizens; from the perspective of what I saw as positive. Trouble was they saw positive in a different sense, from their cultural value system. Boy did I feel the racism, but it actually did me alot of good. I laugh now when I think about all the hate you dirty white boy I heard all day long, ha.

I saw all the problems with alcohol, child abuse, FAS, ect and thought, man what's wrong with these people? THen I started to see all the good and sharing, and family in the village. Then I began to understand how & why all the problems existed and most went straight back to the Indians losing everything they had 100 years before; since us Whites came into the country.

I've lived in a couple different villages and get along with Indians fine now & respect the good I have seen in their society, often wish us Whites practiced some of the Native Way. I help out alot down the village, always invited to everything. Hunt, fish, eat, socialize alot with everybody in the village. Always given moose & sheep when somebody gets one, always treated in ways they let me know that I'm well liked by the Indians. When people come in from other villages, often one will ask? who is the white boy? Introduced as their bro or he's a member of this village, ha ha. I often have Indians stay over at my house when village is full. I always plant an extra 100 lb seed tatoes at my place for village to dig. Good bunch of people. Last weekend one of the grandmothers (has cancer) wanted to have dance & party before she went back to the hospital. I drug the Twin Reverb and all my Indian fiddle music cd's and played for 5-6 hours, they all danced and appreciated it.

Ya know, I really like Indians nowadays,,,, but it took me being the only white boy in nativeland for a year to understand them and then respect/luv them. Good bunch of people for sure;;;; JUst never even try to judge them as you would most other Americans. If you do, you will never see all the good that's really there.

[metesky]

Looks like those Natives wouldn’t have any clothes or shoes if it weren’t for the filthy white man. Or do they have a sneaker factory?

[Eska]

Here's a story that might help explain it. I'd load the high school kids up in my crew cab and run into Tok for pizza sometimes; somewhat of a treat for the kids. Native kids are a little wilder than say most American kids; it's because how they are raised being allowed to experience good & bad on their own and not confined into right & wrong parameters as I was I guess. It;s good and bad actually.

So, anyway, after pizza & cokes; we were on our way back and drove part a small grocery store. Out in front was a native guy who looked as though he had been on a bender for a week. The kids asked me to stop, and one by one, they all got out and hugged this man and talked to him for a minute each. When Johnny, who was 16, got back into the truck; I asked him who was that guy? He replied that the man's father had been a locally famous chief who had about stopped the booze in his village and turned the place around; done all kinds of good. The chief had since died and the village went down hill with alcohol probs once again. Villages need strong leaders and they go back and forth over the years due to alcohol probs growing & waning along with leadership changes. Johnny then said the chief had 6 sons and all but one had died from alcohol; quite common for half the kids to die from booze probs. He then said, that that was the one remaining son, and he was now dying also. Then Johnny said, ya know, we don't blame white man for our probs with alcohol, but it always seems that American society moves in surrounds all our villages with lodges that cater booze ect, and parts of your world that negatively impact ours. It's killing us off as much as any form of genocide. Then what he said floored me. Johnny said again, It's not White Man's fault the booze and all, but when we have a leader who did so much good for his people lose every son but one to the one thing he hated more than any other, booze;;; then lose his last son also and have no sons to carry on his genes; we hurt as a people inside. That was from a 16 year kid.

Most the Indians really do want left alone to hang onto a semblence of what was once their world. Pretty hard when they are constantly being displaced by our world in the scheme of things. You can't begin to understand what's in their heads until you have lived with them. You won't find a more sharing, generous, open-minded, non-judgemental group or people anywheres; you just can't judge them like you would other whites in our world; cause then you'll never get past all the cultural differences that we perceive as being so negative. Good bunch of people.

[RightWhale]

It is not known who the first Americans were, or even when. This is probably going to be seen by the academic anthropology lobby as a racist remark. It is impossible to stop laughing.

[wideminded]

Thanks for that story.

It appears that Indian people may have a genetic inability to resist the allure of alcohol. Even an Eskimo woman I was working with seemed enthralled by it. Perhaps many of the Europeans who had this tendency to such a degree died off long ago.

[Twinkie]

I have two sets of cousins from families of 12 and 13 children. They are very high in Cherokee blood and the alcohol problem is just simply in their genes. Some of them have died from alcohol related illnesses, while some few have been able to beat the problem, and yet stilll some of the other surviving ones are slowly drinking themselves to death. - The Indians just didn’t have the genetic makeup of the white man who had come from a culture that for generations had become gradually genetically acclimated to alcohol’s effects in the blood. - I have some of the Cherokee blood, but not as much as these cousins do, but I’m still leery of it because of what I’ve seen with them.

[metesky]

[Eska]

I agree with you. Most Indians that I know, spend every penny they get from govt on booze; they are binge drinkers and won't stop until broke. Some do quit and beat it the rest of their lives. Indians, can't sit down and have a beer or two then quit. I've seen them freeze in snowbanks. burn up in cabins, and get flown out on planes half dead.

Remember, an Indian Village is like one big family, all related. When somebody wants & trys to quit, all his cousins & brothers try to drag him back into the drinking. They think their relative is going to beat the booze and let them there to die alone, no joke. It's very hard for them to stop for this reason. Plus they see their culture dying and often drink outta despair. All they hear is bad bad, and eventually believe it themselves.

I see alot of Indians that are 3/4's white, raised by village because their white relatives didn't want them. Indians all do the right thing and raise them native. Half breeds are by far better academically endowed that most 100% Indians; it is genetics and where they take what with they are born.