Dustin White
Editor

Popular culture often depicts Native Americans as historically the perfect ecologist, as a people one with nature. This has led many to believe that if only we could get back to that simpler time, the environmental problems we are facing today would fade away.

This is a very human tendency, to want what we do not have. However, this is a want that is based on a mythical portrayal of Native Americans, one that has had serious negative consequences.



Instead of seeing Native Americans as humans like everyone else, a romanticized view is created that strips them of their humanity, and makes them others.

By examining historical records, as well as primary sources, in the form of myths, the popular view of Native Americans natural ecologists, and living in peace with one another, becomes a romanticized view. Instead, it will be shown that Native Americans could also be quite destructive in regards to the environment, as well as to each other (in the form of warfare).

However, such a perspective is not meant to place undue burden upon Native Americans. Instead, it is to strip away a mythical notion, the idea of the “nobel savage.”

Three Emergence Stories of the Southwest
There are a number of primary sources that depict destruction of the environment at some point in the past. This primarily is shown in the form of creation and emergence stories. An examination of Native Americans in the Southwest, reveals that the creation/emergence story often involved some sort of environmental degradation in their past.

Beginning with the emergence story of the Caddoe’s, a whole scale destruction of the environment is seen. In this particular story, it is related how a mother gave birth to four children, who were seen as monsters. While the chief, as well as the elders, encouraged that these children should be killed, the mother refused as she believed that they would grow up to be fine young men. However, these four children, became monsters and began killing and eating people. They themselves had become too large and powerful to be killed, and thus were able to cause rampant destruction.

Eventually, a man who could see into the future, after hearing a voice, was told to set up a hollow read, and plant it in the ground. As the reed grew bigger quickly, he climbed up into the reed with his wife (along with all the animals they wished to save). Once this was done, a flood came through, eventually killing the monsters, as well as everything else. As with many flood stories, life did begin again; however, it also reveals a complete destruction of the world before. A new world must occur, in order to wipe out the wicked one before.



While this particular emergence story is relatively subtle in regards to the environmental destruction that was believed to have been caused, other emergence stories are more direct.

The Navajo have an emergence story that is much more explicit about human destruction. In this story, it is related how First Man and First Woman passed through four worlds in order to get to this world; the fifth world. As First Man and First Woman move from world to the next, the reason given is often the same; their present world became crowded, and the people fought among themselves. This fighting escalates to killing, and eventually the mass killing of animals. We are told that in world three, this escalation reaches its climax, where, as in the Caddoe emergence story, women gave birth to monsters, that destroyed many people, and eventually a flood destroyed the whole world.Once again though, the story ends with a new world in which humans end up inhabiting (in this case the fifth world).

The Hopi also have a similar emergence story. As with the Navajo emergence story, the migration to a new world was the cause of destruction. In one particular version, it is related that in the first world, everything began peaceful. Humans and animals lived in harmony; however, slowly this state of affairs began to give away, until war began between various peoples. Animals became fearful of humans, and the peace that humans once felt vanished. Because of this, it was deemed necessary to destroy the world, and start a new. The few who had obeyed the commands of the creator were spared, but the rest of the earth was destroyed with fire. This is how it is recounted that the first world ended.

As with the Navajo though, the Hopi emergence story contained more than one world. The Hopi story goes on to detail the same theme; humans become disobedient of the commands of the creator, they begin war with one another, and all except a few are destroyed. Eventually, after a great flood destroyed the third world, and the Hopi emerge into our current world; the fourth world.

The basic theme in each of these three emergence stories are the same. Because of humans destructiveness, it became necessary for the world to be recreated. Interestingly enough, the eventual washing away of the destructive past was done though a nearly complete annihilation of man, as well as the environment through the use of a flood. As we will see below, the Southwest would have known the destructive nature of flooding.

While each of these stories are presented as myths, they are also meant to signify a truth. It is not by coincidence that these stories follow the same basic idea. The destructive nature of humans, in effect, caused massive flooding. This could be evidence that the tribes of the Southwest were aware of what their impact on the environment was.

Evidence of Violence
Modern research has shown that various tribes and groups of Native Americans do portray signs of violence. When Native Americans first arrived in the Americas, the land was filled with a variety of large mammals that are now extinct.

While some have suggested that this was caused by those species being unable to adapt during that period of rapid climate, the archeological evidence suggests that the real reason for this mass extinction was in fact over hunting. The support for this conclusion are the massive archeological kill sights, in which has been found large numbers of mammal bones accompanied by spear points, some of which are buried in the rib cages of various animals.

As these bones are from a variety of mammals, which were adapted to both cold and warm weather, the idea that they went extinct because of climate change is unlikely.



In addition to excessive hunting, research has also shown that there was a prevalence of warfare among the Pueblos of the Southwest in prehistoric times. Within a variety of ethnographic accounts, it is clear that for the Pueblos, warfare was an integral part of their religious and social lives.

Particularly among the Hopis, there is a strong oral tradition that speaks of warfare between villages. As Jonathan Haas and Winifred Creamer relate, the emerging idea today is that Pueblo warfare was important to their society, and was largely caused by challenges by their environment, as well as a struggle to survive.

The Pristine Myth
In addition to warfare, there was also a threat of environmental problems. As opposed to what has been called the “pristine myth,” by 1492, Native Americans had already modified forest extent, expanded (as well as created) grasslands, and changed the composition of forests.

Ecologists now believe that if it had not been for annual burning of grasslands, the eastern prairies would have disappeared. In addition, there is also evidence of clearing and burning of forests, which resulted in much of the mature forest to be open, as opposed to the common idea of a dense tangle of trees that signifies a wilderness.

Much of this manipulation of the land was caused by the Americas being well-populated. While the numbers of Native Americans in 1492 is debated, a number of 40-100 million is often accepted by scholars in regards to the Americas as a whole.

Specifically looking at what would be the United States, a number of 3.8 million seems to be reasonable. In addition to Native Americans living in 1492, there were also millions more of Native Americans who had made an impact on landscape over the previous 15,000 years (or more).

The Anasazis: A Test Case
The construction of Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, presents a great test case for examining the impact of Native Americans in the Southwestern United States. Having begun around 900 C.E., the occupation was terminated just two centuries later.

At the height of this civilization, Pueblo Bonito would rise to five or six stories, and include 600 rooms. With the addition of other dwellings, the population of Chaco Canyon, at it’s height, could have reached to well over 5,000 inhabitants. However, today, the area is largely uninhabited, besides a few National Park Service rangers’ houses.

The reason for the termination of occupation of Chaco Canyon has much to do with what can be labeled “ecocide,” which is the destruction of one’s environment to the point in which it becomes impossible to survive there any longer.

In essence, it is the total destruction of an ecological system. The destruction in Chaco Canyon began with the clearing of vegetation. It has been calculated that in order to support the roofs of the multistoried Pueblo Bonito, well over 200,000 16-foot beams would have been needed.

It has been determined that when the Anasazi arrived in Chaco Canyon, they were greeted with a dense pinyon-juniper woodland, as well as a forest of ponderosa pine nearby. Once these sources of wood were exhausted, the Anasazis built an extensive road system, which was upwards of fifty miles, to reach further trees.

This deforestation would then lead to excessive erosion, which was further caused by an elaborate irrigation system. In this process of erosion, deep arroyos were cut, causing the water level to drop below the field levels, and thus making irrigation agriculture, and agriculture based on groundwater impossible.

This was a problem that the Anasazi at Chaco Canyon were quite familiar with, and they tried to find ways to deal with the problem. Eventually, the settlement had to rely on the support of surrounding communities, which exported goods to Chaco Canyon.

Even food would eventually have to be imported to provide for the population of Chaco Canyon. Yet, they had no where else to go as the region had been filled up by a booming population, which eventually left no unoccupied suitable area to relocate to.

Food remains attest to the increasing difficulty of keeping the population of the canyon well nourished, as well as the declining population of wild game in the area. Eventually the situation would become so troublesome that the population fell into strife, where warfare became intense. In addition to this warfare, it also appears as if the population of Chaco Canyon began practicing cannibalism as well.



The final blow to Pueblo Benito was a drought that began around 1130 C.E. When the drought finally hit, the Anasazi were unable to respond.

Throughout this turmoil, the Anasazi would have known the damage that they were causing to their environment. The fact that they were aware of the problems of erosion, and tried to fix the problems with the arroyos, showed that they were aware of the situation that was being caused.

In addition, it is doubtful that they would not have recognized that the forests around them were vanishing, yet they continued with their massive building project.

Origin of the Natural Ecologist Myth
If Native Americans had altered the environment before European contact, and in such cases as the Anasazi, destroyed their ecological system, why did the idea arise that Native Americans were natural ecologists? The origin of this idea is largely in regards to the historical context in which the Europeans were coming from.

By the early modern period, Europeans had been managing their woodlands to the point that a very specific look was created for the landscape. This woodland management in Europe had the consequence that when Europeans first landed in America, they saw what they equated with wilderness.

This identification of forest with wilderness marked it as the abode of the “wild man.” The Native American then were seen as a “wild men” living in an untamed wilderness. It was this uncivilized idea of “wild men” that led to the notion that Native Americans were noble savages, living in peace and harmony with nature.

This view has been kept alive with the creation of modern day “wilderness” in the form of National Forests, and Federal and State Parks in the United States. Such areas have come to symbolize the ancient past.

However, such a view has created profound impacts. Specifically, this flawed view of the pristine myth and the natural ecologists, has led to a reduction of ecosystem fire in the West, which has built up an amount of forest fuels that has never been experienced before.

Essentially, this flawed view has created a situation in which forests in the West have been turned into a tinderbox, which has resulted in forest fires that burn at a rate that has never been experienced before.

In addition to the forest problem, this view of the natural ecologist has also led to the dehumanization of Native Americans. It robs Native Americans of their humanity as it judges them against an ideal that no ordinary person can achieve, thus portraying them as different from other humans.

This view also erases the many differences among Native Americans groups, and their relationships to the environment. At the same time, it portrays Native American groups as quite different from other groups in which they may actually have much in common with.