Book Review

The last thing The Ecological Indian strives to be is ideological, but that it is being so widely taken as such ("pure propaganda" is how a 1999 review in Indian Country Today put it) speaks volumes about how politicized historical interpretation has become. What Shepard Krech III is interested in here is assembling a thorough range of historical documents and synthesizing recent scholarship to figure out the past. For the bulk of scholars, the result will be a splendid collage of mostly familiar interpretations. But in this instance modern scholarship is on a collision course with the pop culture understanding of history, which has been internalized by contemporary American Indians rediscovering their cultural traditions. Many Indians, perhaps predictably, seem uninterested in the scholarly quality and care Krech brings to The Ecological Indian. Because the book does not say what it is expected to say, it is seen—without a fair and thoughtful reading, I fear—as anti-Indian, even racist. Nothing could be more false.	1
As longtime editor of the journal Ethnohistory who did fieldwork among native peoples in the subarctic, Krech has been a respected voice in Indian studies for two decades. I have no idea about his politics, nor could anyone deduce them from this book, although that has not kept some from arguing that The Ecological Indian must be a conservative attack on Indian sovereignty. Here is Krech's actual take on that issue, in an epilogue that carries his story into the present:	2
. . .