Did Native Americans Really Live in Balance with Nature?

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.

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Very special thanks to everyone who sat down to be interviewed for this piece, including fellow YouTubers ‪@NathanaelFosaaen‬ and ‪@CatherineKlein94‬.

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0:00 Introduction
7:15 1. The Makah Whale Hunt
21:34 2. The Biological Cathedral
53:06 3. The Commodity of Nature
1:18:42 4. Plains, Trains, and Buffalo Meals
1:37:19 5. The Makah Whale Hunt, Revisited
2:00:05 Conclusion / Credits

~REFERENCES~

[1] Eric Wagner. "Savage Disobedience: A Renegade Whaler Rocks the Boat in the Makah Struggle for Cultural Identity" Orion Magazine https://orionmagazine.org/article/sav...

[2] Kelly Struthers Montford & Chloë Taylor. Colonialism and Animality: Anti-Colonial Perspectives in Critical Animal Studies (2018). E-Book through the Ted K Archive https://www.thetedkarchive.com/librar...

[3] "Description of the USA Aboriginal Subsistence Hunt: Makah Tribe." International Whaling Commission https://iwc.int/management-and-conser...

[4] Robin Wall Kimmerer. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants (2013). Milkweed Editions, Page 3-7

[5] Ross Kenneth Harper. To Render the God of the Water Propitious: Hunting and Human-Animal Relations in the Northeast Woodlands (1999). University of Connecticut, Page 18-35

[6] Kimmerer, Page 179-188

[7] Harper, Page 291-293

[8] Kimmerman, Page 55-56

[9] Shepard Krech. The Ecological Indian: Myth and History (1999). W.W. Norton and Company. E-Book through the Ted K Archive https://www.thetedkarchive.com/librar...

[10] William Cronon. Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England (2003 Edition). Hill and Wang Page 48-51

[11] Cronon, Page 52-64

[12] Cronon, Page 94-107

[13] Harper, Page 306-325

[14] Cronon, Page 128-141

[15] Andrew C. Isenberg. The Destruction of the Bison: An Environmental History, 1750-1920 (2000). Cambridge University Press, Page 1-36

[16] Jeremy Rifkin. Beyond Beef: The Rise and Fall of the Cattle Culture (1992). Dutton Books, Page 45-51

[17] Rifkin, Page 67-80

[18] Isenberg, 123-155

[19] Daniel Pauly. "Ask Dr. Pauly: Why are we giving subsidies to the fishing industry?" (2023) Oceana https://oceana.org/blog/ask-dr-pauly-...

[20] John Roach. "Seafood May Be Gone by 2048, Study Says" (2006) National Geographic https://www.nationalgeographic.com/an...

[21] David Gillette. "The True Cost of a Hamburger" (2022). American Institute for Economic Research https://www.aier.org/article/the-true...

[22] Molly Brind’Amour. "Fact Sheet | Proposals to Reduce Fossil Fuel Subsidies" (2024). Environmental and Energy Study Institute https://www.eesi.org/papers/view/fact...