Arctic Fox

Of all the ideas and images associated with Native Americans ecology has become the hallmark of non-Indian romantic notions of a 'Noble Savage' and pan-Indian spiritual rejuvenation. The stereotypes of a perfect 'eco-person' in harmony with all of nature or at one with a wilderness is certainly wrong. Native Americans were a highly diverse people with cultures adapting to a highly varied array of American landscapes. Some Native American cultures and civilizations made numerous mistakes from a current ecological point of view.  Archaeological data reveals that agricultural civilizations could quickly over tax the soil and plant communities. Sometimes adjustments could be made, but others instances reveal that abandonment and migration was the only solution. During historical contact many Native American groups found it necessary for survival to succumb to European trade goods or commodities with disastrous ecological consequences. These problems were most acute in areas where fur trade was dominant and later with mining resources. In spite of these realities it is clear that traditional and some contemporary Native American cultures viewed 'Nature' and the environment as having not 'fallen' and being an interrelated system. Western science responded to the destruction of frontier and its value after 90% was destroyed by the 1890s. Its not clear that European Americans ever listened or ever will listen to Native Americans which continues to be the primary barrier to not understanding Native American culture. The call to pay attention to the environment in Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (1960) was not heeded for quite a while as the biological sciences plugged cybernetics and systems theories into environmental research. When it was pointed out that Native Americans practiced ecological principles, obvious exceptions were used to deny any positive influence from Native America.

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