--Wald der Unvernünftig
Monday, September 27, 2010
What Indians Would Have to Say to Us Today
If the Native Americans who lived in the time of the works we have been reading were alive today, I don't believe they would be exceptionally happy. When the Europeans came over to the New World, they obliterated most of the population of Indians already living here. Not only that, but to add insult to injury, we also took their land that they considered sacred and industrialized and polluted it. The Indians obviously had to make huge adaptations to their lives in order to survive. They had to learn English, move from their homes, and completely change their way of life. As for what they would say about modern America, I think they would be simply appalled. I love technology as much as the next guy, but from the point of a 18th century Native American, the way we live today would probably be considered an abomination. The waste and apathy towards the environment that fill our everyday lives would be travesties to the old Indians.
--Wald der Unvernünftig
--Wald der Unvernünftig
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I think that you would enjoy reading 1491. The book offers some interesting observations; among them is the idea that European technology was not the reason that the colonists won the wars. The author posits that it was disease that won the wars both in North America and Central and South America. That book also offers the idea that the woods that the colonists found were actually the result of careful care by the Indians, that they actually planted fruit and nut trees and bushes and so on and maintained the wood with controlled burns. Interesting thought. You are offering, with your blog entries, exactly what I want to see: you are taking the materials that we study and thinking of implications. Keep up the good work. I will offer comments like this one.
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