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Indians left some heavy footprints on environment, author says By
Dusty Decker
Often history is displayed as romantic and there occurs an exaggeration of events and people. Myths about Native Americans in the 15th century are still accepted today by those who have not stopped to consider what effects Indians possibly had on the land before the arrival of Europeans. These myths are replaced with research and facts in Shepard Krech III's book The Ecological Indian: Myth and History. Krech, a professor of anthropology at Brown University and director of Haffenreffer Museum, lectured Friday about his book at Utah State University in the Old Main building. The event was sponsored by the anthropology program, Honors, department of political science and the College of Natural Resources. In the time allotted, Krech summed up his book, explaining his ideas chronologically from the type of animals that existed and became extinct in the Pleistocene era up to how the myths about early history still affect people today. The question Krech solved in his book was whether actions of Native Americans were consistent with popular wisdom that existed when the Europeans arrived. Often only two polar images are asserted due to stereotypes. In movies such as Last of the Mohicans the Indian are seen as wise, dignified and faultless while the French society is being condemned for their ruthlessness. Also in the 1960s there was the emergence of the "ecological Indian," which presented the crying Indian who wept over pollution. Krech also explored the questions of whether the Indians were environmentalists that intentionally did not waste. Krech talked about the extinction of several species of animals in the end of the Pleistocene era and how both native hunters and the climate had effect on this change. Temperatures rose and precipitation declined. Indians also had other effects on the land. In some cases Krech called their acts unacceptable. Indians set fires for several purposes. They hunted animals with fire, they burned grass so it would grow back better for grazing and they used it to kill enemies or escape from danger. Krech explained, "When Europeans arrived America was no pristine, virgin wilderness free from human imprint. It was no paradise or Eden untouched by human hands; it was instead, in major parts of its vastness, a messaged, manipulated anthropogenic land." There is a question of how many Native Americans existed when the Europeans arrived. Many researchers have debated this question giving numbers as low as two million up to 18 million. Krech estimates that there were four to seven million individuals alive then. It is often overlooked that diseases such as small pox had been introduced by earlier visitors and had already depleted much of the Indian population, leaving the land as some call it a "widowed land." Also Europeans came from places that were 15 to 900 more times populated than what they found. There was actually an amazing abundance of animals when they arrived. Another myth that has partial credibility concerns the usage of the animals killed. Most believe that Indians used every part of the buffalo that they killed. Often they did use everything but with the practice of animal jumps it was impossible for them to use and preserve all of the meat. Many times hundreds of buffalo were pushed over high cliffs. Animals were used for what was wanted most at the time like the tongue and fetus. The number of existing buffalo lessened due to the native people. Many rules existed among the Native Americans concerning respect for the animals killed, however they neglected to set rules for the number of animals they killed over periods of time. One of the reasons such a rule was overlooked came from the Cherokee who believed that a deer hunted with respect would return three to six times. They believed in reincarnation. This belief that started to erupt in the 18th and 19th centuries worked against conservation. Krech has received some criticism for his book but those that take the time to read it give positive praise. One reviewer, Terry L. Anderson stated, "The Ecological Indian is what good science should be. It puts forth hypotheses, tests them with data, and draws conclusions only when they are supported by those data.Thanks to The Ecological Indian, we have a clearer, more realistic picture of the first Americans." With this information there might be a clearer understanding of how to handle situations concerning Native Americans today and what they do with the lands they possess. With his book, Krech did not want to appear as judgmental or racist toward Native Americans. Instead he only hoped to answer the questions he had that would discourage commonly held myths concerning how American land was used prior to the arrival of Europeans. Krech's book can be purchased in the USU Bookstore.
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