After the arrival of white settlers to what is now the United States, the land changed dramatically. Not all Native Americans can be put into one category, as there existed many sovereign tribes, but, on the whole, Native Americans did have a greater respect for the land and lived more sustainably. Anglo-Americans tended to believe in Jefferson’s “allodial rights”, or that the land one owned was theirs alone and they could do as they wished with it. Due to these views, after their arrival, the land and its inhabitants suffered grave consequences, including deforestation, extinction of animals, pollution, and other serious environmental problems. For example, there were once 30 million buffalo roaming freely in the western United States. The white settlers slaughtered the buffalo for their hide or simply for sport, in stark contrast to the Native American practice of using every part of the buffalo: bones as eating utensils, skin as clothing, hide for warmth, etc. The extension of the railroads also led to the near-extinction of the buffalo. Another example is the deforestation: half of the United States was forest when the settlers arrived. An incredible amount of trees have been cut down for our use, and this continues to happen.
While “going green” has become popular, even trendy, it is still difficult to undo so much damage that has been done in the past few hundred years. That being said, it would be beneficial to all of us to study age old Native American practices and begin to incorporate them into our lives today, in addition to some of the green trends that are catching on.
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What other native cultures can we look to for new perspectives of land use? Why is the Anglo-American attitude so different than these, and why is it that the Anglo - American attitude is what is most evident today?
ReplyDeleteWhat are some recent practices of sustainability that may have been adapted from the Native Americans?
ReplyDeleteLately the green revolution has been explosive, how does the ethical practices of current day parallel those of the Native American's? Which is the correct action to take to move closer to the Native American's ideals: the Allodial Land Right or Leopold's Land Ethic?.
ReplyDeleteTechnology has advanced too far for us ever to conceivably go back to the ways of the Native Americans, but how can we take the larger message of their practices and incorporate them into sustainable education?
ReplyDeleteDid the Native-American practices have some influence on the conservation movement? In what ways?
ReplyDeleteIt appears that you are presenting some sort of fusion between age old Native American practices and current green trends as a solution to Anglo-American waste. Does this mean that the Native American practices you plan to examine have to have survived the test of time? Are there certain Native American practices that are not viable for our lives today?
ReplyDeleteIt might also be interested to examine any underlying principles that might correlate any similarities between Native American practices and current green trends (if there are any).
What specific Native American practices can be applied to the present day? What are the negative affects of these alternatives? How can companies and individuals be persuaded to adopt such alternatives, especially during their beginning stages when availability for these alternative is low?
ReplyDeleteThe Native Americans were extremely efficient in their ways of recycling "wastes" such as using every part of the bodies that they hunted, such as bison. Is this type of thinking a way the current United States should embody? Is having a closed-loop system the best option we should use because the wastes of one company could be the inputs for another company?
ReplyDeleteWhat schools of thought were used by the Native Americans (ecocentric, biocentric, Utilitarian etc.)? How have Americans strayed from these schools of thought and is it still possible to regain them even after a technological revolution in which we have become heavily dependent on the effectiveness of technology?
ReplyDeleteIf the Native American population grew to the amount of the American population it is today, how would their practices change?
ReplyDeleteFrom a cost/benefit perspective, would you consider 30 million buffalo roaming freely in the western US an efficient use of resources? What would a utilitarian say about this (potentially) inefficient use of resources?
ReplyDeleteWhat view, Conservation or Preservation, would best help people to adapt to these Native American practices? Would educating people about the Land Ethic help them understand what they should and shouldn't be doing to their surrounding environment?
ReplyDelete