Professor Peter Nabokov’s latest book, Where the Lightning Strikes, explores sixteen American Indian tribes across North America. Using the four directions as a way to divide his book into parts, Nabokov introduces the tribes who live within these regions and also covers the major court cases in which tribes fought – and still continue to fight – against destruction of sacred land.
BookZone: You make some interesting points about how deeply American Indians are connected to the land. Their reverence for nature is reflected in many ways, from how they give names to locations in order to map out the landscape, to how they use these land locations in stories to lay claim to ancestral territories. Their stories are constant reminders that their relationship to the earth is a reciprocal one. Their appreciation of nature is in some ways kin to, and yet entirely different from, the appreciation of an environmentalist or nature enthusiast. Could you comment on this?
Nabokov: One thing that was important for my book was to try to move away from the benevolent but simple-minded stereotype of the American Indian as ecological saint. “All Indians,” goes the stereotype, “feel a harmony with nature.” That doesn’t get us very far. In my interactions with various Native American communities, and in reading endless amounts of ethnography, I became interested in trying to tell stories about different types of Native American belief systems and how place fits into these systems; how rituals, pilgrimages, belief systems and practical activities are, or were, different in the human-environment relationship from Indian region to Indian region. That was critical to me – to blow North America apart, so to speak, into multiple, cultural areas and show the range of American Indian beliefs related to the natural environment and sacred histories.
I tried to arrange my chapters so that they would move sequentially and provide readers with an ever-deeper series of explorations of this diversity of American Indian interactions with the natural environment. Hopefully, the book is going to have a readership that can be academic but also reach [more broadly] to a general readership that is curious about what makes other societies tick in terms of their deep underlying values – especially when those values are rooted in the American landscapes that they share.
BookZone: You mentioned in your book how the cultural practices of American Indians are sometimes loosely adopted by New Agers and people who have raves in the desert in an attempt to gain some sort of spiritual experience, and how American Indians do not appreciate this type of misrepresentation.
Nabokov: There is definite tension between New Agers and Native Americans today. Some people have the idea that American Indians have this instantaneous, ecstatic relationship with nature. They are under the impression that they can take ancient cultural practices that go back thousands of years and experience the same thing in a matter of hours.
BookZone: The Sioux of Black Hills, South Dakota are an example of American Indians who are still holding out for – after refusing federal payoffs – the possibility of reclaiming ancestral land. Are there any other tribes that you are aware of who are currently fighting for land rights?
Nabokov: It’s going on all over the place. Just when you think one battle is over and done with, another one begins. There are Indians fighting against everything from uranium mining to land development to the pollution of rivers across the continent.
BookZone: You note that Indian gaming is on the rise. The Seminole tribe recently made headlines with their purchase of the Hard Rock Cafe chain. Does the business of gaming conflict with Indian values or is it generally viewed as a step forward by Indian communities?
Nabokov: I don’t think we can generalize – American Indian views on gaming vary from region to region. Good Native American Indian cultural programs have been underwritten by funds derived from gaming. I see Indian gaming as a sort of first line of defense: If you can get through the front doors and then maybe go visit a museum that might be connected to the casino, you might meet some people and have a conversation. If they can see that your interest is sincere – and you accomplish this by listening; by not talking too much; by being polite; and maybe you might buy someone a meal – then there is the possibility that they might begin to trust you and let you deeper into their world. When I was in Seattle recently, I visited one of these casinos and met a guy who later took me to see Chief Seattle's grave. That kind of opportunity is out there, but you may not ever find out about it unless you care enough to make the effort.
Professor Nabokov’s black and white photographs of the Vaigai River in South India were exhibited last month at UCLA’s Kaufman Hall in a collaborative show entitled, “A Stretch of Life.” The exhibition also featured an audio soundscape mixed by David Karagianis, using sounds that were digitally recorded along the river by Professor Nabokov and J. Rajasekaran.
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