Customer Reviews

Native Americans and the Environment: Perspectives on the Ecological Indian

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was an invited participant in the Conference in which these articles were presented. There were 14 Native American presenters at this conference, most of whom were critical of Krech and his misrepresentation of Indigenous knowledge and perceptions in the Ecological Indian. I find it very interesting that only one of these people (Darren Ranco) is represented in this book. What the book ends up being is the perceptions of a few of the non-Native people who presented at this conference, plus several other non-Native scholars who were not in attendance. Harkin and Lewis, the editors, were at the conference, and both have chapters that strongly support Krech in this book. Given the apparent bias of the two editors their choices of who got to participate in this volume further reflects their personal thinking.

Harkin's paper in particular is quite confusing. The basis of Harkin's argument is that Indigenous relations with the natural world involve two components: reciprocity and predation, and that interactions between Indigenous people and nonhumans invariable involve predation but do not have a reciprocal component. It is interesting that the paper following Harkin's in this volume shows that activities of Indigenous salmon fishermen enhanced stream conditions and salmon numbers in the period prior to European invasion of the Pacific Northwest. Harkin also ignores all of the work on Indigenous burning which shows that this practice enhanced habitats for wildlife and many plants and prevented buildup of heavy brush which can lead to catastrophic fires of the sort that regularly plague Southern California and Southeast Australia today.

The editorial review (also by a non-Native scholar) that Amazon presents is very misleading. It describes all 12 papers as being from the conference, when only three papers: by Braun, Lewis, and Ranco are actually from the conference. The reviewer apparently is unfamiliar with the conference and the number of Indigenous authors excluded.

What you have in this book is a text that provides primarily (11 of 12) non-Native perspectives on Native people's interactions with and knowledge of the natural world. Despite the editor's exclusionary tactics,some of these papers are quite good. I recommend the chapters by Feit, Langdon, and Kelly and Prasciunas in particular. As an example, Feit does a masterful job of deconstructing Krech's misuse of historical and anthropological data concerning beaver trapping in Canada. Make your own assumptions, but it is not surprising that this book largely ends up presenting material that was supportive of Krech and his point of view. It is difficult to imagine a greater effort at post-colonial colonization than Harkin's decision to not include most of the Indigenous participants at his conference while inviting other non-Natives who did not even participate.

Unlike most people who read this book, I did not read "The Ecological Indian" (TEI) before reading this book. At first glance, I thought this book would bash the TEI.

PROS: The book presents varied perspectives on TEI. The analysis is dispassionate and academic. The arguments are reasoned and calm, which is refreshing since many people who disagree with TEI are extremely emotional about the subject. I loved that they gave the author of TEI a part of the book to address the objections; that's quite fair and helps the discussion.

CONS: A bit too academic at times.

CONCLUSION: I found the arguments against the TEI not incredibly convincing. I thought I would come away with a bunch of strong counter-arguments against TEI and instead found myself agreeing with the general thesis of TEI (even if there are some small holes in it that this book addresses).

And I have still not read TEI.