The world-famous conservationist John Muir first came to America as an eleven year old boy with his family to the wild lands of Wisconsin in 1849. He soon became aware of weary and forlorn groups of Winnebago Indians who begged for food. If they were refused food, they took it upon themselves to slaughter livestock from neighbors' farms. One of the Winnebago Indians even stole John Muir's favorite pony. Despite all of this, young John Muir empathized with them for their plight of having to beg and steal on what was once their native land.
John Muir Becomes Friends With A Fellow Sheepherder in California
When Muir arrived in California after his studies at the University of Wisconsin and his thousand-mile walk from Indiana to Florida, he took a job as a sheepherder in the mountains of California. A fellow worker happened to be an Indian of the Maidu tribe (then known as Digger Indians). It was through his friendship with this individual that Muir grew to respect Maidu culture. When the Indian was allowed to remain on his land, Muir reasoned, he was able to maintain harmony and balance with the land never taking more than needed. His Indian friend proved to be self-sufficient and never "food poor" as were non-Indian shepherds.
The Maidu Shepherd Slept Without Blankets in the High Sierra
In his book, My First Summer in the Sierra(1911), Muir writes: "The Indian lay down away from the fire last night, without blankets, having nothing on...but a pair of blue overalls and a calico shirt wet with sweat...A fine thing to be independent of clothing where it is so hard to carry. When food is scarce, he can live on whatever comes his way--a few being roots, bird eggs, grasshoppers, black ants...without feeling that he is doing anything worth mention." For John Muir, in this Indian is an exemplar of Emersonian self-reliance and Thoreauvian simplicity.
Muir Grows More Appreciative of Alaskan Natives' Environmental Living
Muir's tribal education continues in Panhandle Alaska as recorded in his book Travels in Alaska (1916). Thirty years after John Muir first immigrated to America and ten years after his arrival in the Sierra Nevada, he set sail for Alaska in 1879 and followed with two more trips in 1880 and 1890. He visited a Stickeen Indian village on his first trip to be thoroughly impressed with tribal art and architecture. He made many sketches of totem poles and comments their log structures that were completely waterproof: "The completeness of form, finish, and proportion of timbers suggested skill of a wild and positive kind." He soon met a Tlingit Indian by the name of Kadachan.
Kadachan's Environmental Wisdom
When Kadachan was asked by a Bostonian missionary if he believed wolves have souls, he replied that they do and that they are wise creatures who know how to sneak up on their prey with a mouthful of grass for concealment. Muir asked Kadachan if wolves are so wise and powerful, why don't they kill off their prey? Kadachan replied that "wolves knew better than to kill them all and thus cut off their...food supply." Here is strong evidence for the Tlingit's ecological understanding of his environment acquired through long years of observation.
Tlingit's Respect for Wildlife
Muir was deeply impressed with a Tlingit shaman's treatment of a sick boy. Apparently the boy had mocked a crawfish calling him "crooked legs" who cannot even walk straight. The shaman believed that the crawfish had plucked the boy's spirit out of him and that unless his stolen soul is restored to him, he will live on only as a "lonely, empty body." For Muir this story implies the need for a respectful relationship between humans and all creatures, even crawfish. There are dozens more examples in Travels in Alaska, and in another book The Cruise of the Corwin (dealing with Inuits) of Muir's tribal education in Alaska.
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