Eurocentric Influence On Native Americans

There has been a longstanding debate over the appropriate way to understand the relationship of Native Americans with the environment and the ecologically noble Indian stereotype that has followed them throughout history. This essay examines the fundamentally Eurocentric attitudes that this very debate entails, thereby rendering any possible conclusions drawn to be meaningless due to its lack of understanding of the basic cultural structure it seeks to define. Because of the radically different way Native Americans conceptualize the universe and nature, attempting to place them on our constructed spectrum of environmentalism is a meaningless endeavor. If the term “environmentalism” itself is examined, it becomes clear that it is by definition …show more content…
The Eurocentric worldview permeates every aspect of our lives, as we are all products of the system of the United States. In both our relationships with each other and nature, each of us participates in and replicates these notions of Western society and culture, as we are all indoctrinated through the education system and socialization. Donald Fixico writes:
America’s educational system robs people of their individuality while training them to accept whatever the authorities dictate. Instead of learning to reason for themselves, children learn to obey – precisely the quality most valued by a society dependent on mass production. It’s no surprise that so many children grow up to be fodder for the industrial machine. It’s all they know how to do. [Fixico 2009: …show more content…
This willingness to reevaluate our basic understanding of nature must occur on a far larger scale in order to bring about any real effects in political policy reform and individual practices and overcome the individualistic attitude that pervades our society and has caused a detachment from our environment and its subsequent