About the Native Americans

In my last post I wrote: “I think the way that life was lived right here, under our feet, in Lenapehoking, 500 years ago (that’s actually just 20 generations ago) was sane and healthy and natural and fine.”

When I say that I get accused of romanticizing or not appreciating the actual full-human-ness of Indian life. Hey, they had violence and superstitions and oppressions and injustices.

As all humans do.

I recognize that as individuals and as cultures they had neuroses. As all humans do, on account of the burden of consciousness.

My point is that the scales and complexities of their lifeways were sane.* Ours are not.

* Generally speaking. The vast majority of the tribes and villages lived in what Gary Snyder called the Old Ways. Some of the Native American societies, such as the Aztecs and Incas, had started to trend toward complex, class-divided urban civilization. Humans, all humans, have to learn to resist going in that misguided direction. In fact, that’s the essence of the project of our movement: To disseminate the comprehension of what went wrong and, on that basis, to change direction.