The New Native Americans
by Michael Green, from the After Culture website, edited for this site by Alex Guillotte

1. American Indians and other indigenous people developed a wide variety of cultures that maintained a sustainable relationship with the environment. They were driven by certain common understandings in their world-outlook, such as the sacredness of the natural world.

2. All civilizations come to an end, there is no reason to believe that ours is an exception. In fact, Western Civilization can be seen a relatively brief social experiment that by all environmental evidence is already a failure.

3. Even as we speak there is a large and growing movement of people around the world who are turning (and re-turning) to indigenous wisdom and mores as a far more workable model for human culture. Sometimes the understanding is superficial, sometimes deep, but it is all part of a major "paradigm shift" away from our failing system, and toward something simple, sustainable and sacred.

4. Therefore let us imagine what a fully realized After-Western-civilization "indigenous" culture would or could be like. Racially, such a culture would be as mixed as we are, but it would represent the ultimate triumph of the ancient wisdom of Traditional indigenous people. We may call them THE NEW NATIVE AMERICANS because like the Mohawk or the Pomo they would be profoundly native to the land.

5. To imagine a NEW NATIVE AMERICAN culture accurately, we should be anthropologically realistic, not politically correct. Native peoples themselves are very adept in assimilating influences, regularly adopting ceremonies, styles and technologies from other tribes as they see fit. Likewise the new Native Americans would draw upon a wide variety of sources of inspiration as they attempt to re-establish a way of being. This would include American Indian culture, traditional cultures from around the world, and from whatever was worthy in Technological culture. In fact, all this is exactly what is happening right now. The [After Culture] exhibit is reporting as much as projecting.

6. Without vision the people perish: This [After Culture] exhibit is more than an imaginative exercise. We live in desperate times when clear and powerful visions of a workable, earth-friendly future are needed to counteract the sci-fi global-economy internet fantasy that is devouring the world's resources and spirit.

 

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