American Indian Culture and Research Journal

In the field of conservation, discussion has increased about the need to restore environmentally safe lifestyles that not long ago described indigenous cultural livelihood and values. A consumptive economy, along with extracting land and water policies and the depletion of nonrenewable resources caused by industrialization, have motivated environmentalists, politicians, and other officials to advocate for a more conserving approach to human subsistence. Whatever the origins of the ”new” environmental movement, its advocates advise individuals and organizations that want to protect the environment to examine the ecological example of indigenous people. In an article entitled “The Ecologically Noble Savage,” author Kent H. Redford utilizes modern European concepts and ideas about conservation to evaluate indigenous groups as ecological people. He then unravels these ideas of ecology and separates the ecological idea from the indigenous character to reveal the danger and illusion of the “ecologically noble savage.” Redford prefaces his article with strong supportive statements about the need to study and preserve native cultures, but he is indignant that policymakers implement development plans in accordance with cultural sensitivities. According to Redford, there is no need to consider cultural values in anyone’s plans for economic development, because the values that enshroud culture (as they are relevant to indigenous people) are only values that originate from Europe. He claims that the whole idea that Indian people are ecological is a “European ideal”; in this way, he attacks what some people regard as the “inherent superiority” of the indigenous way of life. He overlooks some of the best examples that would support his argument, such as the clear-cutting of Chaco Canyon by the ancient Anasazi Indians, which is the typical case scenario set forth by other denouncers of Indian myth; instead, he attacks the ideological truisms that he says misguide the best intentions of today’s development programmers.