impact to the ecosystem and limiting the burden that their settlements imposed on
any species. In their migration, Indigenous peoples maximized their seasonal access
to resources and minimized their efforts, while achieving greater ecosystem balance
(Cronon 1983). The observation of Native practices only furthered colonial views
related to the uncivilized nature of the Native population. Puritan accounts relayed a
view that Natives were inefficient in their agricultural practices and the seeming lack
of use of God given resources justified the taking of their land (Jennings 1975;
Lopenzina 2006).
The maintenance of Indigenous peoples in New England extended over a multicentury period summing to millennia. Furthermore, at the time of colonial settlement, Indigenous communities were not recorded as being in a state of self-induced
ecological peril. These observations compare to the significant environmental degradation, species elimination, and resource depletion observable in less than four
centuries and arguably catalyzed by the culture of the usurping colonial settlers
(Calloway 1997; Jennings 1975). The variation between the environmental legacies
of the Indigenous relative to the colonists does promote a rationale for studying the
impact of a society’s cultural values on the environment.
2.7.2 Colonists Promotion of “Tragedy”
Colonial records of New England in the seventeenth century were not descriptive
narratives related to the beauty or even objective assessment of the landscape.
Instead the surviving descriptions are useful in providing insight into the market
focus of colonial settlers. The colonial attitudes and appetite for what was coined as
the “New World” equated to a “discovery” from the perspective that the resources
found were thought of as accessible for the colonists’ taking, the land for their
ownership, and the Native people for whatever purposes the colonists so fit, including their elimination in the event they proved useless (Cronon 1983; Jennings 1975).
Their views were legitimized by religion and a sense of moral superiority and
indifference to whether their actions in the New World were contrary to those
espoused in either. The initial justification of the settler’s right to land that was
already inhabited was provided through religion and in particular the book of
Genesis, which said to give land to those who used their God given attribute of
dominion over plants and animals and who followed God’s pronouncement to
multiply; neither if these characteristics were found to be in use by the Indigenous
populations (Cronon 1983).
English settlers accustomed to scarcities of wood enthusiastically recorded that
the New England landscape was filled with trees of sufficient number, to ensure a
warmer winter than “the nobility of England could hope for.” A century later in the
1700s, the same areas were observed and recorded by William Wood, “as being so
clear that one may ride a hunting in most places of the land if he will venture himself
for being lost.” Another observer recorded that from a hill near Boston for thousands
of acres not one tree could be seen (Cronon 1983). Like timber harvesting, the
slaughter of animals for fur as a result of the European fur trade depleted large
2 The Role of Culture and Moral Responsibility in Facilitating a Sustainable. . .
23
any species. In their migration, Indigenous peoples maximized their seasonal access
to resources and minimized their efforts, while achieving greater ecosystem balance
(Cronon 1983). The observation of Native practices only furthered colonial views
related to the uncivilized nature of the Native population. Puritan accounts relayed a
view that Natives were inefficient in their agricultural practices and the seeming lack
of use of God given resources justified the taking of their land (Jennings 1975;
Lopenzina 2006).
The maintenance of Indigenous peoples in New England extended over a multicentury period summing to millennia. Furthermore, at the time of colonial settlement, Indigenous communities were not recorded as being in a state of self-induced
ecological peril. These observations compare to the significant environmental degradation, species elimination, and resource depletion observable in less than four
centuries and arguably catalyzed by the culture of the usurping colonial settlers
(Calloway 1997; Jennings 1975). The variation between the environmental legacies
of the Indigenous relative to the colonists does promote a rationale for studying the
impact of a society’s cultural values on the environment.
2.7.2 Colonists Promotion of “Tragedy”
Colonial records of New England in the seventeenth century were not descriptive
narratives related to the beauty or even objective assessment of the landscape.
Instead the surviving descriptions are useful in providing insight into the market
focus of colonial settlers. The colonial attitudes and appetite for what was coined as
the “New World” equated to a “discovery” from the perspective that the resources
found were thought of as accessible for the colonists’ taking, the land for their
ownership, and the Native people for whatever purposes the colonists so fit, including their elimination in the event they proved useless (Cronon 1983; Jennings 1975).
Their views were legitimized by religion and a sense of moral superiority and
indifference to whether their actions in the New World were contrary to those
espoused in either. The initial justification of the settler’s right to land that was
already inhabited was provided through religion and in particular the book of
Genesis, which said to give land to those who used their God given attribute of
dominion over plants and animals and who followed God’s pronouncement to
multiply; neither if these characteristics were found to be in use by the Indigenous
populations (Cronon 1983).
English settlers accustomed to scarcities of wood enthusiastically recorded that
the New England landscape was filled with trees of sufficient number, to ensure a
warmer winter than “the nobility of England could hope for.” A century later in the
1700s, the same areas were observed and recorded by William Wood, “as being so
clear that one may ride a hunting in most places of the land if he will venture himself
for being lost.” Another observer recorded that from a hill near Boston for thousands
of acres not one tree could be seen (Cronon 1983). Like timber harvesting, the
slaughter of animals for fur as a result of the European fur trade depleted large
2 The Role of Culture and Moral Responsibility in Facilitating a Sustainable. . .
23