Red Earth, White Lies: Native Americans and the Myth of Scientific Fact
Though Deloria (Custer Died for Your Sins) has a broad academic brief?he teaches history, law, religious studies and political science at the University of Colorado?here he ventures into a new area, attacking the way scientists have created "a largely fictional scenario describing prehistoric North America" and suggesting that Indian lore may offer better explanations. Given Deloria's not-so-temperate tone?"Christianity has been the curse of all cultures into which it has intruded"?it is hard to judge all his arguments. He finds flaws in scientific accounts of how Indians once traversed the Bering Strait land bridge; he also reports that geological evidence suggests an earlier Indian presence and notes that no tribal creation stories reflect such a migration. Similarly, he criticizes scientists who argue that Indians killed off North American megafauna of the Pleistocene era. Deloria's fiercely argued study sometimes overwhelms as a narrative, but his charges should provoke more evaluation, as well as examination of the consonance of science and Indian tradition.Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.