Though the trope of the “Ecological Indian” is indelible in popular culture, history tells a much more complicated story. Featuring cutting edge perspectives rarely seen outside academia and in-depth interviews with indigenous historians, climate scientists, and other experts, this video will dispel the paternalistic myths and reveal Native American ecology in all its ingenious, imperfect glory.
I liked very much the takes of most historians that are included but not the take of this video in general (I’ve seen approx half of it).
It seems to me like this video has a faulty starting point. Sure, the global north - left and right - still struggles to overcome the myth of the noble savage and I have the impression that the ecological Indian is a continuation of this linear eurocentric narrative.
The problem I see with this youtuber’s take is well articulated in 44:25. For me this is definitely not a matter of properly categorizing past cultures in modern terminology, like environmentalism. It’s about how cultures/civilisations are interacting with their environment in practice.
And this is why I really oppose the statement at 49:49.
The main argument of the video is that they are human beings who should be allowed to exist in their own right, outside of the mythologies propagated by polluting corporations and western countercultural movements. It is possible to deconstruct dehumanizing stereotypes while celebrating and advocating for the adoption of traditional ecological practices, but promoting these practices while conceptualizing indigenous people as supernatural fauna is big yuck.
The latter half of the video discusses how they were forced into the market economy to survive, how murderous westward expansion destroyed their cultures, with a major conclusion being: