I think one thing we should all do is stop thinking of Native Americans as "Noble Savages" always living at "at one" with nature. I know many
Native Americans who presently hunt for sport and I have no doubt many did so in the past.
The very idea that Native Americans never wasted anything or killed unnecessarily is pure fallacy and a figment of European..(White Mans)
imagination.
All human Societies are guilty of pollution, rape, murder and abuse of resources and the fellow man. Native Americans are no exception.
Here is an interesting comment on the subject that speaks volumes in my opinion,
No, seriously, there has never been a human society in which no one ever abused, murdered, or raped anyone else. American Indian societies were
no exception. I've been a little surprised to hear this idea coming from some Indians now as well as white New Agers. Some people need to go back and
listen to the old stories a little more. Why do the villains in our legends and oral histories rape, murder, abuse and enslave people if we never knew
what that was? This is really the other side of the same "savage Indians didn't understand honesty, love, or loyalty" coin, and it's just as
dehumanizing. Of course we knew what pollution, rape, massacres, and wife-beating were, and we knew they were wrong. We had laws against these things,
we punished people we caught doing them, and we told stories with morals to teach the children they were unacceptable and would lead to no good end. A
dog never does anything evil and never does anything about evil, because a dog doesn't understand evil. Civilized people are capable of evil and work
together to protect their society from falling prey to it. Native Americans, contrary to some reports, were and are civilized people.
Here is a difficult truth: neither. People on both continents knew how best to live in their native environment, built the tools and machines
they needed for their daily lives, wore clothes, made music and art, took care of their children and elders, fought wars, built cities, prayed, and
sometimes did wicked things. Most people couldn't read or write, but some could. Some leaders were just, and others oppressed people. Europeans had
more advanced weapons, and Native Americans took more baths.
Somehow, this is the very hardest idea for Americans to come to terms with, given the massive genocide that occurred here. If heroic white pioneers
wiped out a race of ignorant cavemen who were just living miserable savage lives anyway, or if misguided white aggressors slew a noble and gentle race
of otherwordly beings who might have otherwise taught them the secrets of wise living, then those would be comprehensible tragedies. That one group of
normal, generally decent people should have slaughtered another group of normal, generally decent people--ordinary human beings who baked bread and
did their laundry and watched football games and gossiped about their neighbors and made mistakes and loved their children--is psychologically
devastating, almost beyond comprehension. But that's what happened. We're just like you. We always have been. There are just fewer of us, now.
compliments of
www.native-languages.org...
My Grandmother was 1/2 French and 1/2 Cherokee. Not quite sure what that makes me, but I had always had an idealized vision of Native American living
in total balance with nature until I visited reservations in New Mexico and saw first hand the pollution and filth that seemed common to almost every
area I visited. It was a real eye opener for me.
Now back to the whale. I can understand the disgust so many have with hunting them for sport especially because the numbers left are dwindling
rapidly.
I think that the Natives who continue to hunt them are just riding the coat tails of their ancestors. I agree that using modern methods to hunt them
negates any cultural value they claim to support.
Shades of Ahab...."To the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee..."
Not all cultures today vew them as "gentle giants".
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