Taking the famous 1970s environmental advertisement portraying Iron Eyes Cody - the crying Indian - as his jumping-off point, anthropologist Shepard Krech examines the validity behind popular notions of American Indians as having lived in harmony with nature prior to contact with Europeans. Critically examining modern conceptions, Krech employs historical and archeological evidence to attempt to paint a picture of how numerous Indians across time, throughout the American continent, actually interacted with the world around them. In chapters focusing on the disappeared Hohokam, Indians' use of fire, and different tribes relationships with game animals, Krech convincingly portrays the dynamic relationships of Indians and the natural world. Though it may seem like an obvious conclusion, one of Krech's most important assertions is that there were, and indeed continue to be, as many different ways of interacting with and thinking about the natural world as there are peoples and individuals engaged in their natural context. By getting away from culturally-reliant and overly-simplified definitions of Indians' interactions with the non-human world, Krech has done much to flesh out these first Americans less as myth and more as complex, thoughtful, insightful as well as at time profligate, wasteful and careless people. This is crucial because it allows for the beginning of a dialogue in which we can think about Indians as real, dynamic people who did exist on this continent for thousands of years.
Though at times rambling and overburdened with redundancies Krech does provide a more fulsome understanding of Indians situated within their specific historical context. The important take away from this work is that we have much to learn about Indians as people and dynamic cultures and would be well-suited to asses their worldviews and reactions to change in light of our own dynamic culture and natural world.
