Page 14 RAIN February I March 1981 LAND The Social Economy of the Tlingit Indians, by Kalvero Oberg, 1973/80, 144 pp., $7.50from: University of Washington Press Seattle, WA 98105 American Indian Environments: Ecological Issues in Native American History, ed. by Christopher Vecsey and Robert W. Venables, 1980, 208 pp., $9.95 from: Syracuse University Press Syracuse, NY 13210 "America's Own Hostages," by Rex Weyler, in New Age Nov. '80 (Pt. 1) and Jan. '81 (Pt. 2), $1.50 each from: NewAge P.O. Box 1200 Brookline Village, MA 02147 Frorri the very first white footstep in North America right up to the present moment, the central feature in Indian-white relations has been the struggle over land and natural resources. The books and article cited above all lend an added dimension to our understanding of this conflict. The northern end of the Northwest Coast, in the southeastern part of what we call Alaska, is the home of the Tlingit Indians. Oberg's study of these people (done in what anthropologists call the "functionalist" tradition) is actually a 1933 doctoral dissertation which, through some strange twist of events, sat on a shelf for 40 years before it was finally published. While at first Oberg appears to be just another academic anthropologist, his study sheds light on the Tlingit and other Indian cultures of the Northwest Coast, and offers an historical comparison at a time when the economy and society of Alaska are changing rapidly. Most interesting to non-anthropologists are the chapters on the annual production cycle (demonstrating the societal sensitivity required when survival depends upon nature's seasons), the organization of labor, and the distribution and consumption of wealth. Oberg's description of Tlingit distribution of wealth provides an example of an economy without a central market-something many of us have trouble visualizing. His account of the Tlingit "potlatch" (a fourday ritualized dancing, feasting, and giftgiving ceremony) portrays another concept difficult for us to visualize: social prestige among the Tlingit was not so much a factor of accumulating wealth as of sharing it. American Indian Environments is a particularly interesting anthology. The book quickly centers on the issues of environmental conflict and land utilization. One author refers to the white practices of land use as "the great despoilation" and argues, with little difficulty, that white utilization of natural resources has been characterized by its rapacity, wastefulness, and shortsightedness, in contrast to the relatively benign effects of precontact (pre-1492) Indians on their ecosystems. "Whites have done more than destroy Indian ecosystems. Even more forcefully, they have dispossessed Indians, coercing them from their tribal homelands. This process continues to this day." Another author notes with irony that whites justified Indian dispossession on the grounds that Indians were not making efficient use of their lands. Whites and Indians in America have differing ideas, not only over possession of the land, but also over land use ideals. Whites have perceived those differences as justifications for appropriations, and "this rationale will very possibly result in future dispossessions and appropriations of Indian lands and resources. Thus the history of the issue bears directly on contemporary events." The editors conclude that it is essential for Indians to maintain their refuges-reservations, an effort which will involve maintaining and enforcing treaty rights vigorously. "Even if Indians leave their reservations-as many must since their land base is too damaged and small to support the resident Indian population-the refuges must remain there for them to return to either periodically or permanently.... The reservation as refuge is always there to nurture and preserve Indian ways. After five hundred years the same premise holds true: Indians depend directly upon their land base for survival as Indians. It is still their source of life." The Indian land base is also the source of vast energy resources. The 25 tribes represented in the Council of Energy Resource Tribes (CERT) have on their reservations better than 50 percent of all known uranium reserves in the U.S., more than 30 percent of the low-sulfur strippable coal west of the Mississippi, 10 percent of all U.S. coal reserves, and 3 percent of U.S. oil and gas production. (See RAIN Dec. '80, July '80 and Feb./Mar. '80). Consequently it should come as no surprise that the eyes of the government and a host of multinational companies light up with neon dollar signs at the mention of the Indian land base. Leonard Peltier is an American Indian Movement (AIM) leader who, despite his claims that he has killed no one and broken no laws, spends 23½ hours a day in the "Control Unit" of Marion Federal Penitentiary. His case has everything to do with energy resources and the Indian land base. Amnesty International is now investigating the Peltier case, concerned that he may be a political prisoner. It's a tremendously complicated story spanning several years and borders, full of love and lies, laws and brutality, spirituality and oppression. Rex Weyler has done an admirable job of untangling and presenting it in his two-part article. Highly recommended; it should be widely read and spread. (Incidentally, Weyler himself was arrested Jan. 23 along with 5 members of Greenpeace Canada for sending motorized rubber boats darting into the path of a supertanker conducting mane~verability tests in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Greenpeace suspects the tests may be the first step toward .opening the inland waters of western Washington to the big ships.)-MR The "Control Unit" at the U.S. Federal Penitentiary, the solitary confine where Leonard Peltier is now incarcerated, has been called "the darkest hole in America." In physical as well as psychological terms, it is an inhumane place that no one should have forced upon them. Supporters of Peltier have asked that letters expressing concern over Peltier's safety and welfare and protesting his confinement be sent to: Director, Mr. Norman Carlson, Bureau of Prisons, 101 Indiana Ave. N. W., Washington, DC; and that letters, telegrams and phone calls go directly to: Warden H.G. Miller, USP-PO Box 1000, Marion, IL 62959, 618/964-1441. I 1
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