Beyond the “Ecological Indian”: Environmental Politics and Traditional Ecological Knowledge in Modern North America

Abstract

The idea of the ecological Indian dates back to at least the early modern period in Europe and initial colonial encounters between Europeans and Native North Americans. In the minds of Europeans, and later Euroamericans, the ecological Indian represented a softly spoken “noble savage,” a natural conservationist who was attuned to the earth’s rhythms. As the following essay reveals, this racial trope remains alive and well in the modern history of North America, inhibiting meaningful dialogue between white Americans and Indigenous/First Nations people on environmental issues and the rapid pace of global warming. Through case studies of the Campo Indian Reservation in southern California, the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, and Native American opposition to the construction of oil pipelines through tribal lands, in addition to analysis of the environmental writings of Indigenous scholars and activists such as Deborah McGregor and Winona LaDuke, this essay aims to advance historical and environmental discourses beyond racial stereotypes. The article also seeks to encourage a deeper, serious, and more meaningful engagement with Native American environmental knowledge and social practices to more effectively meet the environmental challenges confronting Native and non-Native peoples alike in twenty-first-century North America.