From: betsys@cs.umb.edu (Elizabeth Schwartz)
Newsgroups: sci.med.nutrition
Subject: Re: True Vegeterian - is it OK?
Date: 27 Jan 93 04:57:54 GMT
	<C0uCEE.D6q@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk> <1993Jan15.083556.10055@rtf.bt.co.uk>
	<C120Et.Lou@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk> <BETSYS.93Jan22162539@ra.cs.umb.edu>
	<C1Eutx.1FH@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk>
Organization: University of Massachusetts at Boston


  Well, it sounds like your friend is truly dedicated to his own
destruction. He *might* be slightly more receptive to  a healer who is
sensitive to vegetarianism and fruitarianism...but he might be past
the point of listening. I had a friend who was starving (for other
reasons, he was unemployed and refusing "charity" and had other
problems) and after a while of not eating he really stopped making
sense. We had to feed him before he could think straight, and he did
end up in a psychiatric hospital. 

We can talk in private email if you want about your friend, but I'll
say this in public: I don't know where your friend got his ideas about
"Red Indians" but I haven't heard of fruitarian American Indians (or
Native Americans as many prefer.) There are many different tribes of
Native Americans, with different diets and cultures. The tribes of the
Northeast were great traders, and grew corn (maize) and squash and
fished and hunted small game. The Plains Indians (Sioux, Cheyenne)
were buffalo and deer hunters, and ate wild grains and berries. Tribes
in the southwest ate corn and beans as staples. 
   The Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest, who are the ones who
build totem poles, Kwakuitl (sp?) and other groups, are great salmon
fishers. And of course the Inuit (Eskimo) live almost entirely off of
meat, seal and walrus and fish.
    Most of the Indians in "Western" movies are patterned after Sioux, 
Apache, and Comanche, as they were the larger groups which offered 
resistance to the theft of their lands in the 18th century. The Apache
and I think Comanche were involved in some of the wars between the US
and Mexico also (I don't know much history, I'm afraid.)
  
  It *is* true that many Native American cultures think of animals
as their brothers, and thanked them before eating them. There were
also prayers to call the animals to send one of their number as a
sacrifice so that the people could eat (I have heard samples of these
types of prayers from all corners of the US.) BUT, once the animals
were caught, killed, and thanked, they were eaten!

  All the above is a great over-simplification, as there are hundreds
of different tribes of Native Americans. (Does anyone out here know?
Were there/are there  vegetarian Native American tribes?)
  
   Gosh, how can anyone find "fallen fruit" in Glasgow? I picture Glasgow
as being something like Pittsburgh in the USA...medium size, heavily
industrial city with a lot of old factories? I bet you can find
vegetarians. The folks in rec.food.veg might know. Sounds like your friend
needs a hospital, though.

good luck, 

Betsy
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