-Caveat Lector-
Today's NY Times has an article titled "People Can't Agree on What's
Natural and What's Not," by Timothy Egan that repeats an often-heard
accusation against the American Indian, namely that they were just as
"wasteful" of natural resources as the Europeans. Egan writes:
"A hundred years ago, after the Americans had wiped out most of the
bounteous bison of the West and removed the native people who had lived on
those animals, there came a great die-out of domestic cattle. A long,
bitter winter left cowboys without cows, and the Indians saying, 'Told you
so.' It was, many people still believe, nature's blow against the attempt
to erase much of the native West.
"But what about the Great Plains tribes, who used to start big grass fires
to drive bison off a cliff? By some estimates, up to 90 percent of a herd
was wasted. It may have been natural or simply crafty and wasteful, no
different from Roman excess."
Well, what about those Great Plains tribes? If you look at the chapter on
"The Prairie-Plains" in Alice Kehoe's "North American Indians: A
Comprehensive Account," you will find reference to bison being corralled,
not being stampeded off cliffs. John C. Ewers was Senior Ethnologist at the
Smithsonian Institution and an expert on Plains Indians. In his "The
Blackfeet: Raiders of the Northwestern Plains," there is an account from an
elder named Old Weasel Tail of how the Blackfoot hunted bison prior to the
introduction of the horse into their society:
"Near the edge of timber and toward the bottom of a downhill slope the
Indians built a corral of wooden posts set upright in the ground to a
height of about seven feet. They connected the posts by crosspoles tied in
place with rawhide ropes. Around three sides of the corral they laid stakes
over the lowest crosspoles. Their butt ends were firmly braced in the
ground outside the corral. These stakes projected about three feet or more
inside the corral at an angle, so that their sharpened ends were about the
height of a buffalo's body. If the buffalo tried to break through the
corral, after they had been driven into it, they would be impaled on these
stakes. From the open side of the corral the fence of poles extended in two
wings outward and up the hill. These lines were further extended by piles
of cut willows in the shape of conical lodges about half the height of a
man, tied together at their tops. These brush piles were spaced at
intervals of several feet. On the hill just above the corral opening a
number of poles were placed on the ground crosswise of the slope and
parallel to each other. The buffalo had to cross these poles to enter the
corral. The poles were covered with manure and water, which froze and
became slippery so that once the buffalo were in the corral they couldn't
escape by climbing back up the hill.
"Before the drive began a beaver bundle owner removed the sacred buffalo
stones from his bundle and prayed. He sang a song, 'Give me one buffalo or
more. Help me to fall the buffalo.'
"Then men of the camp [probably swift-footed, long-winded young fellows]
were sent out to get behind a herd of buffalo and drive it toward the
corral. Another man stood at the top of the hill and gave a signal to the
women and children, who were hiding behind the brush piles, that the
buffalo were coming. As the animals passed them on their way down the slope
the women and children ran out of their hiding places.
"Once inside the corral the buffalo were killed by men and boys stationed
around the outside of the stout fence. Then the camp chief went into the
corral to take charge of the butchering and the division of the meat. While
butchering, the people ate buffalo liver, kidneys, and slices of brisket
raw. Two young men took choice pieces of liver, kidneys, liver, brisket,
tripe, and manifold to the beaver bundle owner who had remained in his
lodge during the slaughter, but whose power had brought success in the
hunt. Each man who killed a buffalo was given its hide and ribs. The
slaughtered animals were cut into quarters which were divided among the
families in the camp. Each family, whether it was large or small, received
an equal share."
In other words, the bison hunt was not a wanton destruction of wildlife,
but a calculated effort to supply the basic needs of the village.
Furthermore, NOT A SINGLE piece of the bison went to waste. The other thing
to understand is that the great risks were involved. If a hunt was not
successful, people might starve. The bison might detect the scent of the
hunter or an unusual sound might frighten them away. Blackfoot tales
include numerous references to repeated failures to get the animal into the
corral. There are none that recount driving them off a cliff, which I have
a feeling is a projection of our own wasteful practices on indigenous
society.
This NY Times article, which is actually a discussion of a book written by
a British social theorist who wants to apologize for European control over
the world and the consequent environmental destruction, is just another in
a series that would discredit the Indian: The Indian is a cannibal; the
Indian was not the original American, but Caucasians living near the
Columbia River were.
The particular importance of this bison being stampeded off the cliff myth
is that it is a way for Americans to rationalize evil. Nearly everybody
understands that the Great Plains are an ecological disaster. With the
destruction of the bison and the removal of the Indian into reservations,
we have seen agricultural development that contains the seeds of its own
destruction. Cattle are a waste of grasslands. They foul the water
supplies, while requiring all sorts of chemical additives that are
destructive to our own health as well as their's. Meanwhile as cattle
ranchers across the entire Northern Plains face economic ruin, they find
themselves seduced by the cryptofascist message of the militia movement.
The only way to deal with these problems is at their root. However, this
means addressing the profit motive which is taboo in American society.
While nobody can talk about it in the mainstream press, this does not mean
that the problem will go away. Like any other chronic, possibly fatal,
illness, it requires radical surgery and the sooner, the better.
Louis Proyect
(http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)
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