"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.