Surely there is something that we can learn, 5 Nov 2003

By	DAVID-LEONARD WILLIS (Thessaloniki Greece) - See all my reviews

I read this passage in the introduction: "In this book, the Indians speak for themselves, of the quality of their life. The passages that make up the book have been taken from speeches of Indians living in all parts of the North American continent, between the 16th and 20th centuries. They speak with courtesy and respect of the land, of animals, of the objects which made up the territory in which they lived. They saw no virtue in imposing their will over their environment: private acquisition, almost without exception, was to them a way to poverty, not to riches. The meaning of their life was identified through their relationships with each other and their homelands - all of which was given depth and resonance by memory" and understood that here in this volume I would find what I was looking for. Many of the passages reflect attempts by the Indians to offer their ideas to the whiteman but we responded by destroying their way of life and with it much of the wisdom we need today. We are indeed fortunate to have this collection to refer to. We cannot turn the clock back; we cannot undo the deeds of prior generations. But perhaps we can at least take the trouble to reflect on what these wise people were trying to teach our forebears and perhaps we will find some words of wisdom that will help us to live our lives with our two natures - materialistic and spiritual - more closely in balance.

If we fail to do this I fear that the prophecy in the introduction will come true. "It is well understood that the only decent future for us who live in America now is through a rediscovery of our environment. We need to establish a right relationship with the land and its resources; otherwise, the destruction of the Indian will be followed by the destruction of nature; and in the destruction of nature will follow the destruction of ourselves."

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A View From the Other Side of History, 15 Sep 2002

By	Robert Best (Northumberland) - See all my reviews

Many of the pieces express the beauty and simplicity of their shamanic beliefs, their fundamental respect for the Earth and all her inhabitants, and their generosity to all - a philosophy we would all do well to learn from today. However, the over-riding sense of the book is one of sadness and, at times, anger, at the way we, the white settlers (invaders) treated the indiginous peoples of America and Canada. We stole their lands through violence that verged on genocide, or through deceit. We took away their way of life. We signed treaties with them that we had no intention of honouring. We desecrated their holy places. We tried to 'educate' them into our 'civilised' ways of living and being. We forced them onto reservations. Distressingly, much of this is still going on today, in one form or another.

But there is humour here, too. There's a proclamation from a group of Native Americans who, in 1969, took possession of the island of Alcatraz, where they stayed until being forcefully evicted in 1971. In it, they offer to purchase the island "for $24 in glass beads and red cloth (which is) $1.24 an acre, greater than the 47c an acre that the white men are now paying the Californian Indians for their land."

There are salutary lessons here for all those who believed their history teachers when they taught that America is a white land, and that all we did was move in and make better use of it than the savages we found there. It was, and always will be, the sacred land of a wise people who feel such a connection to the Earth that they tread lightly upon it.

I say again - we could learn so much, if we could only leave aside our false superiority and our rampant greed.

"The great (white) man only wanted a little, little land, on which to raise greens for his soup, just as much as a bullocks hide would cover. Here we first might have observed their deceitful spirit" (1609)

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