promoting the memory of culture. One of the alarming aspects of the loss of culture (of acculturation) is that in the absence· of processes which meet peoples' needs, social disintegration occurs. That is why acculturation is associated with alcoholism, suicide, family disintegration, an_d all the other social ills that the.federal government has programs to control. It is a model of the process of colonialism. First they create the problem, then they offer prescriptions as remedies... The logical response to that process is that Native people must develop, or redevelop, their own economies. To develop a Native economy (and almost everyone is in favor of that, at least rhetorically), we are immediately forced to deal with overall questions concerning what is called technology. At the moment, technology is too often treated as a given. All technology, so we are told, is Western technology. If you are talking about providing housing, a lot of people think that there is only one technology which builds houses. In truth, there are many technologies, and many kinds of housing. ·People who are serious about the need to develop a Native economy are faced with the problem of becoming familiar with the technol_ogies which meet their needs. "Native communities don't need 16-foot combines, they need food to eat. They don't need plywood factories, they need homes. There is a need, on a very practical level, for people to begin to think small.'' • The idea that Nativ~ people can adapt technology is not new, but there are lessons to be learned about the social impact of new technologies. Technologies can alter culture. Consider for a moment the introduction of the horse to the Native peoples of the Plains. The horse actually arrived among many Native groups ahead of the Europeans. But the horse was an agent of profound cultural change. Horses made it possible for large numbers of people to live on the Plains. Native people.adopted the 'horse wholeheartedly. They became very adept. breeders of horses, pr9ducing breeds which were improved for their own purposes. The Apaloosa is an example of that... There is a need for social change in the Native communities today, but there are many pitfalls-and pr'oblems involved. Native people need to adopt some new forms of doing things which provide an alternative to the federal funding system which promotes environmental exploitation of a destructive nature, and BIA paternalism. When we look into the arena of technologies, we find that the alternative grabbag is filled to the brim. There are so many technological possibili_~ies that it staggers the mind. The choices must be made with an eye January 1979 RAIN Page 9 to goals, presumably the enhancement of community wellbeing, cultural values, and local ecology. That horse keeps coming back to mind. It provided a new possibility for life on the Plains. One must ask, what kind of technology is needed now? What would bring to Native people the possibility of a new life on the territories they now inhabit? What would revitalize and strengthen the people now? The focus pretty clearly needs to be local production for local consumption. A given community of people need to look at their resources.with an eye to meeting their needs themselves. When we speak of technologies of food production, we must understand that the food which is produced must be intended for consumption by the group producing it. The prospects of the sale of surplus must be secondary. The same principles need to be applied to forest products, fibers, minerals.,The need is to produce for ourselves with our own (or our adapted) techniques on our own territories. And we need to consider a lot of economic _networking. There exists the materials on Native territories to build homes, heat those homes1 grow food, and develop a wide array of locally produced products. Native communities don't need 16' combines, they need food to eat. They don't need plywood factories, they need homes. And there'is a need, dn a very practical level1 for people to begin to think small. We should adopt a theme-small is beautiful. A great number of Native peopl'e today ar,e looking to the U.S. government for.assistance ·in these problems, but there is a low level of understanding about the processes at work. People can't invoke Native sovereignty in one breath and demand that the U.S. enact its "trust responsibility" in the next. The trust responsibility of a policy which states that Native people are legal d<:!pendents of the U.S. government. A people qmnot enact sovereignty when they are in fact dependent'on federal _dollars for their every need, from housing to education to food on the table. All of these issues ar~ intertwined. T0 develop economic self-reliance (or even economic independence), a people m·ust exercise sovereignty. To exercise sovereignty, the Native nations must achieve economic self-reliance. To do any of these things, they must control all elements of their own lives. The true value of appropriate technology is that it can be the process (including both hardware and software) by which that control is practiced. Appropriate technology is "appropriate" to Native people only if it returns to them control over their lives. What Native people need to develop are technologies appropriate to the exercise of sovereignty. Returning to people real_control over their lives must be the primary goal of Native people if they are to survive in these times. D Reprinted by permission from Akwesasne Notes. For a subscription send your donatio.n to Notes, Mohawk Nation, via Rooseveltown, NY 13683.
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