Taking Issue With the Saintly Light That Costner Shines Upon Native Americans

Since the opening of “Dances With Wolves,” there have been a number of letters in Calendar lamenting the alleged destruction of “nature” by trappers and other white men in the Old West. Gary Clausen’s Jan. 13 letter is a fine example of not-so-fine logic.

More Indians (Native Americans, if you will) were killed by other Indians in the 19th Century than the U.S. Cavalry ever could have killed. Crow killing Blackfoot killing Sioux. Commanche and Apache went at it, and pity the poor Navajo caught in the middle. So let’s not point the finger at European-Americans in the very unsettled West.

As far as “atrocities . . . committed against nature,” as Clausen charges, well, give me a break. With what did they commit the so-called atrocities? Everything used by hunter, trapper, pioneer, settler and Indian was biodegradable. And most writers of the period say that the largest area (of disrupted nature) was a vacated Indian camp . . . hundreds of circular spots littered with bones, defecation, implements, worn items and dead animals.

Ever heard of “buffalo falls”? They are all over the West. Indians hunting bison would herd hundreds of the animals off a cliff to kill them. Unfortunately, only the animals on top of the pile below the cliff could be butchered and used.

So much for Indian “environmentalism.”

To give Indians some super-human insight beyond what nature blessed them with (as it did the “Indians” of old Europe such as the Vandals, the Huns, etc.) is counter to fact.

ROBERT BURTON

Santa Barbara