Radical Noesis - Thinking outside the box

And speaking of Indians, a false notion exists among some people that since Native peoples lived a simple, pristine existance, it stagnated their cultures. It is suggested by some that the trade-off for living in total balance with nature was never to develop and impliment any accouterments of so called Civilized society. This is a false assumption and a harmful justification for exploitation of natural resources.

Emory Keoke and Kay Porterfield in their book The Encyclopedia of American Indian Contributions to the World: 15,000 Years if Inventions and Contributions, Facts on File, Inc. strongly refute this. It is a myth that all we got from Indians was corn, tobacco and a few place names. They created and invented and were still able to live in solid balance with Nature. It was my good fortune to have known and briefly worked with Emory some years ago.

Speaking place names and language, I found this to be an interesting statement: "If you take the words from a people, it will backfire. They forced us to learn English. Now, for the first time in history, Native peoples are united by language that's permitted us to communicate with one another in such a way that missionaries and colonizers may someday come to regret." Wendy Rose, Hopi & Mohawk