Friday, February 22, 2008

WWID? (what would the Indian's do?)

here's a link I found for a review of Krech's Ecological Indian. From the perspective of an Indian.

http://www.iiirm.org/publications/Book%20Reviews/Reviews/Krech001.pdf

3 comments:

LJM said...

Very interesting article, Meredith

Jim Tantillo said...

that strikes me as a fairly even-handed and thoughtful review. thanks for finding it and posting the link!

Megan said...

That was a good article. I think the author touches on an important point which is that depicting Native Americans as 'ecological saints' ignores their humanity. To pretend that Native Americans were not capable of substantially altering ecosystems or were not susceptible to the temptations of the free market is to patronize them. The same sort of thing happens with other groups as well. For example women are often portrayed as moral saints, responsible for maintaining virtue and decency in the home. This denies women their person-hood - their ability to make mistakes and struggle with complex issues. Krech's novel is important because it acknowledges Native Americans as humans, capable of creating and destroying, capable of making mistakes and setting things right, and today, capable of contributing society with the same magnitude as anyone else.