This work results from reading about Native Americans and the tragic impact of European contact on their traditions and way of life. I was astounded to realize as an adult how little I had learned in school and that most of what I was taught was colored by prejudice or stereotypical thinking. There was a strong presumption throughout many of the old textbooks I have looked at that the Pilgrims and colonists who came after had the right to settle on Indian land. The Indians were described as hostile, warlike savages when they fought to preserve their territory.

It is shocking to look at social studies books, even ones from the 1970s, and see how little is mentioned about the role Natives played in Colonial America, the complex religious and social systems they developed and the deliberate attempt by our government and religious missions to destroy their way of life in favor of something more “civilized.” It is only in recent years, after we have abused our land and resources, that we look at their way of living as a model to learn from.

By discovering what we never learned in school about native cultures and their sacred relationship to the land, we can gain understanding of values needed by the modern world to sustain the viability of the planet on which we live.


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