American Indian Culture and Research Journal

Virginia Sanchez, Western Shoshone National Council agrees that, yes, indigenous people do have a leadership role in global disarmament, because "[w]e know how to communicate other ways than with the. . . brain." In popular culture, images of peaceful, traditional American Indians characteristically evoke ecological sentiment; in one of the latest manifestations of that propensity, Dances with Wolveshas been hailed as a film that raises environmental consciousness. Ironically, though, and despite the existence of organizations such as WARN (Women of All Red Nations), C.A.R.E. (Citizens Against Ruining our Environment), the Native Resource Coalition, and Native Americans for a Clean Environment, many non-Indianssee only this symbolic association and do not heed the importance of contemporary American Indians as agents and theorists of environmental concerns, particularly around nuclear issues. Yet, throughout current American Indian writings, in the works of Paula Gunn Allen, Marilou Awiakta, Linda Hogan, Simon Ortiz, Wendy Rose, Martin Cruz Smith, Barney Bush, and Leslie Marmon Silko-to name only those who most immediately come to mind-we find a richly developed, diverse, and insightful attention to nuclear themes.