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With contributionsf rom
Kai T. Erikson
William T. Hagan
Laurence M. Hauptman
Wilbur R. Jacobs
Oren Lyons ,
Peter MacDonald
Calvin Martin
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Ecological Issues in
Native American History
Edited by
Christopher Vecsey
and
Robert W. Venables
SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY PRESS
1980
E
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A'16
Copyright © 1980 by Syracuse University Press
Syracuse, New York 13210
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
First Edition
Chapter 2 is reprinted from Old Trails and New Directions: Papers of the Third North
AmericanF ur TradeC onference,e dited by Carol M. Judd and Arthur J. Ray, by permission
of University of Toronto Press. © University of Toronto Press 1980.
Chapter 3 is © 1978 by The Pacific Coast Branch, American Historical Association.
Revised from Pacific Historical Review, Volume XLVII, No. 1, (February 1978),
pp. 1-26, by permission of the Branch.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Main entry under title:
American Indian environments.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Indians of North America-Land tenure-Addresses,
essays, lectures. 2. Human ecology-North America
Addresses, essays, lectures. I. Erikson, Kai T.
II. Vecsey, Christopher T. III. Venables, Robert W.
E98.L3A46 304.2'097 80-26458
ISBN 0-8156-2226-0
ISBN 0-8156-2227-9 (pbk.)
Manufacturedi n the United States of America
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CONTENTS
CONTRIBUTORS vii
INTRODUCTION ix
ChristopherV ecseya nd Robert W Venables
1 AMERICAN INDIAN ENVIRONMENTAL
RELIGIONS 1
Christopher Vecsey
2 SUBARCTIC INDIANS AND WILDLIFE 38
Calvin Martin
3 INDIANS AS ECOLOGISTS AND OTHER
ENVIRONMENTAL THEMES IN AMERICAN
FRONTIER HISTORY 46
Wilbur R. Jacobs
4 JUSTIFYING DISPOSSESSION OF THE INDIAN
The Land Utilization Argument 65
William T Hagan
5 IROQUOIS ENVIRONMENTS AND "WE THE
PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES"
Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft in the
Apposition of Iroquois, Federal, and New York
State Sovereignties 81
Robert W Venables
6 REFUGEE HAVENS: The Iroquois Villages of the
Eighteenth Century 128
LaurenceM . Hauptman
vi
7 VICTIM VERSUS VICTIM: The Irony of the
New York Indians' Removal to Wisconsin 140
Robert W. Venables
8 A REPORT TO THE PEOPLE OF GRASSY
NARROWS 152
Kai T. Erikson and ChristopherV ecsey
9 NAVAJO NATURAL RESOURCES 162
Peter MacDonald
10 AN IROQUOIS PERSPECTIVE 171
Oren Lyons
NOTES 175
ILLUSTRATIONS
Archangel with Musket xi
Cahokia Mound, Illinois xiv
Cahokia Mound, Illinois xv
Chatpiles, Miami, Oklahoma xvi
Chatpiles, Miami, Oklahoma xvii
The Three Sisters, Ernest Smith 12
Thanking the Spirit of the Bear, Ernest Smith 14
The Indian Widow, Joseph Wright 48
American Progress,J ohn Gast 63
Progresso f Civilization, Thomas Crawford 70
Indian of North Carolina,J ohn White 86
The True Picture of One Picte, John White 88
Both Sides of the River (Ee-Tow-O-Kaum), George Catlin 136
Drawing by Wohaw 137
A West Indies Scene, Jan Mostaert 169
The IroquoisT reeo f Peace,O ren Lyons 172
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CONTRIBUTORS
KAI T. ERIKSONis Professor of Sociology and American Studies at Yale
University.
WILLIAMT . HAGANi s Distinguished Professor of History at the State
University of New York at Fredonia.
LAURENCME. HAUPTMAiNs Associate Professor of History at the State
University of New York at New Paltz.
WILBURR . JACOBiSs Professor of History at the University of California,
Santa Barbara.
ORENL YONSis a chief of the Onondaga Nation, an artist, and Visiting
Professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
PETERM AcDoNALDis the chairman of the Navajo Tribal Council of the
Navajo Nation.
CALVINM ARTINis Associate Professor of History at Rutgers University.
CHRISTOPHEVRE CSEYis Assistant Professor of History at Hobart and
William Smith Colleges.
ROBERTW . VENABLEiSs Curator of American Indian History at the
Museum of the American Indian in New York City.
vii
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INTRODUCTION
CHRISTOPHER VECSEY and ROBERT W. VENABLES
IN
APRIL1 979, HOBARATN D WILLIAMSM ITHC OLLEGEspSo nsored a two
day symposium, "American Indian Environments," in Geneva, New
York, organized by Christopher Vecsey and Robert W. Venables. In
dians and non-Indians convened before a large audience of students
and scholars to discuss the historical and contemporary relations be
tween native Americans and the natural world. Most of the chapters in
this book derive from that symposium, alth9ugh three of them were
written for a panel, "Native Americans as Refugees," at the October
1979 Duquesne University History Forum in Pittsburgh.
The "environments" referred to in the title of this book are the
nonhuman surroundings commonly called "nature," or more techni
cally, "ecosystems," the inhabitable biosphere of earth, air, and water
upon which all humans depend for survival. The chapters describe and
analyze Indian relationships with these environments. The book
examines Indians' attitudes toward their world, their subsistence upon
it, and their struggles with non-Indians over possession and use of it.
In the Indians' sacred circle of creation, everything- even a
stone -is equally alive and equally integrated into a balance of life.
How different this perception is from that of non-Indians was demon
strated by an otherwise sensitive radio news broadcast in June 1979
over American National Public Radio. After describing the worst forest
fire to sweep through an area of Ontario in eighteen years, the white
reporter concluded that, fortunately, there was "no loss of life."
Thousands of acres of soil, trees, and other life forms lay scorched, but
the reporter and probably most of the non-Indians who made up the
audience assumed that the word "life" by itself, with no qualifying
term such as "animal," meant only human life, other life forms being
ix
X INTRODUCTION
inferior. No such separation and stratification of life forms exist in the
sacred circle of the Indians' environments. The Indians' circle of life
comes back upon itself, and thus any loss of life along the circle
diminishes the whole. For non-Indians the straight line that is defined
as progress has yet to reincorporate the unity of creation's circle per
ceived by many of their own ancient and medieval ancestors.
The American Indians' concept of the sacred circle expresses a
physical and spiritual unity. This circle of life is interpreted according to
the particular beliefs of each Indian nation but is broadly symbolic of an
encompassing creation. The English verb "environ" has as its first
definition in the Oxford English Dictionary: "Of things: To form a ring
around, surround, encircle." While non-Indians quite willingly admit
to the complexity of the circle of "things" around them, what has been
left behind by the scientific, post-Renaissance non-Indian world is the
unrversal sacredness-the living mystery-of creation's circle. One of
the themes of this book is the consequence of a conflict during which
most indigenous Indian nations, who saw their environments as the
sacred interdependence of the Creator's will, confronted waves of
post-Renaissance Europeans who saw in the environment a natural
resource ordained by God for their sole benefit.
This book does not pretend to be definitive or all inclusive, but
it does aim to survey the scope of Indian natural history since white
contact. It focuses primarily on contrasting Indian and white attitudes
toward nature, subsistence techniques, and land-based sovereignty;
white removal of Indians from their land bases; and the effects of white
ecological practices on the Indian population as well as on the Ameri
can landscape itself. The chapters attempt to cover a broad range of
time - from first contact to contemporary - and space - from the
Northeast to the Southwest-as well as a broad range of specific issues
and points of view.
ARCHANGEL WITH MUSKET, anonymous Indian artist, Alto Peru, early
eighteenth century. Although the authors of this book deal primarily with the
Indians living north of Mexico, certain themes would be as accurately applied
south of the Rio Grande as north. This is strikingly demonstrated in this
painting. No similar image of an archangel appears in Europe. Indeed, "paint
ings of angels bearing arms appear to be unique to Alto Peru," writes art
historian Pal Kelemen. This painting is a dramatic synthesis from the percep
tive mind of an Indian who observed the similarly clad bodyguards of the
Spanish viceroy and fully understood what had brought about his people's
conquest and their environment's exploitation: Christianity intent on obtain
ing worldly riches, armed with musket, sword, and dagger. New Orleans
Museum of Art, New Orleans, Louisiana;p hotographb y Robert W. Venables
