"The indian view of land, of
course, was far different. In the Native American View, land
was a person, invested with every attribute of personhood
and, as such, could be "owned" by no one. None could divide
up the land. No one had exclusive use of the land. Makaina
sustained and nourished all alike, and although there were
intertribal wars, within any given Native American Pains
society, the emphasis was on cooperation rather than
competition; what competition there was was a shared
competition … no chief among the Lakota or any Plains tribe
held anything like absolute power. The power of even the
legendary chiefs such as Sitting Bull or Crazy Horse
consisted of moral suasion and example alone. Any tribesman
or group of tribesman could, at any time, disagree with the
chief, break off and form his own band. Here, then, in
America, were societies which, by Hobbesian criteria, should
have devoured themselves through internal strife" (Bunge,
22).
"The Medicine Chest"
and the Abundance of the Earth
Interviewer - Earle Waugh, PhD.
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