num_pages: 320
description: "A good story and first-rate social science."― New York Times Book Review The idea of the Native American living in perfect harmony with nature is one of the most cherished contemporary myths. But how truthful is this larger-than-life image? According to anthropologist Shepard Krech, the first humans in North America demonstrated all of the intelligence, self-interest, flexibility, and ability to make mistakes of human beings anywhere. As Nicholas Lemann put it in The New Yorker , "Krech is more than just a conventional-wisdom overturner; he has a serious larger point to make. . . . Concepts like ecology, waste, preservation, and even the natural (as distinct from human) world are entirely anachronistic when applied to Indians in the days before the European settlement of North America." "Offers a more complex portrait of Native American peoples, one that rejects mythologies, even those that both European and Native Americans might wish to embrace."― Washington Post
language: English
title: The Ecological Indian: Myth and History
titlecomplete: The Ecological Indian: Myth and History
genres: Native American History, History, School, Anthropology, Science, Nature, Ecology, American History, Nonfiction, Environment
ratings_count: 278
publisher: W.W. Norton & Company