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Re: NFC: Fwd: Earth Day (fwd)
Interesting and not really surprising---I always wondered if primitive
man was as "noble" as generally thought.
---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: mcclurg luke e <mcclurgl at washburn_edu>
Reply-To: nfc at actwin_com
Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2000 21:22:46 -0500 (CDT)
>
>I imagine this will get me some comments...
>
>Luke
>
>
>
>
>MYTH OF ECOLOGICAL AMERICAN INDIANS
>
>On Earth Day there will be many events applauding Native
>Americans for living in harmony with the environment before the
>evil white man came and destroyed paradise. The school children
>who participate in these Earth Day brainwashing exercises are
>not going to hear anything about the incredible environmental
>destruction by the native peoples of North and South America.
>
>A recent study by Robert Whelan documents the many ways in which
>pre-Columbian man absolutely ravaged his environment.
>
>For starters, Native Americans were big forest burners, since
>forests interfered with hunting; indeed, before the white man
>came there was virtually no virgin forest because it had all
>repeatedly been burned.
>
> o Lewis and Clark recorded that Indians in the Rocky
> Mountains would set trees on fire "as after-dinner
> entertainment; the huge trees would explode like Roman
> candles in the night."
>
> o Many Buffalo jump sites have been found where Native
> Americans stampeded huge herds over cliffs -- some sites
> have the remains of as many as 300,000 buffalo.
>
> o They often hunted animals into extinction, including the
> woolly mammoth, saber-toothed tiger, giant sloth, giant
> beaver, camel, horse, two-toed horse and dire wolf,
> according to environmental writer Alston Chase.
>
>Native religious ceremonies also contributed to extinctions --
>for example, women of the Crow Tribe wore dresses decorated with
>the teeth of 350 elk, and in Hawaii, natives made beautiful
>capes from the feathers of as many as 80,000 birds, some of
>which became extinct.
>
>Soil erosion was common long before white settlements were
>established. When the land became exhausted, Native Americans
>simply moved on.
>
>In many ways we treat the land better today than pre-Columbian
>man did, and are better conservationists and stewards of the
>environment. Earth Day enthusiasts should cease celebrating an
>Eden that never was.
>
>Source: Bruce Bartlett, senior fellow, National Center for
>Policy Analysis, April 19, 2000.
>
>For Whelan study http://www.iea.org.uk/wpapers/env14.pdf
>
>For more on Biodiversity
>http://www.ncpa.org/pi/enviro/envdex5.html#g
>
>
>
--
Regards,
Gary Rollwage
Arlington, TX
grollwag at oilstates_com
--