Plummeting Diversity Threatens Humanity

The article has absolutely nothing to do with the Indians, and I REALLY wish you would stop citing them as a race of Mystic Noble Savages In Intrinsic Touch With The Natural World, because that is not what they are. They are people, and, like people everywhere, they are an extremely mixed lot.

According to the archaological findings, the First Nations people before the European invasion were not particularly concerned with either conservation or cruelty to animals: many of their food-getting practices would not be legal or morally acceptable today, and they hunted a number of species into extinction. And in my personal experience - living in a rural Western area where the local Tribal corporation is the major property owner - to the extent that the First Nations folk have a collective policy/agenda toward wildlife, it is still an extremely pragmatic, often short-sighted one one, sharply focused on food and profits.

According to the Indians, what you do to animals is eat them. Our local Tribal corporation doesn't care jack-shit about the welfare of any animals except those that can be marketed commercially. They know damn well what harm their aquaculture set-ups do to the natural environment - I know they know, because I sit there in the courtroom listening to them being told, over and over - and they simply Do. Not. Care. So please stop with this "every Indian ever" stuff - have you ever even met any Tribal corporate lawyers? They're amazingly similar to corporate lawyers everywhere.

A year later, we're still fighting this. A year from now, we'll probably still be fighting it, because the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe can afford to drag this out as long as they have to. It may turn out that our only effective weapon against this egregious attack on the National Wildlife Refuge is to organize a boycott of all Tribal-owned businesses in Clallam County.