This article ran in The Textbook Letter, November-December
1994.
It accompanied a review of Addison-Wesley Biology, a
high-school
book issued by the Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.
Chief Thunderbottom,
the Panderer's Friend
William J. Bennetta
You probably haven't seen the name of Chief Thunderbottom until
now, but you may well have encountered some of his work. The Chief
is the proprietor of Thunderbottom Public Relations, Inc., a company
that cranks out press releases telling phony stories about American
Indians. The stories are becoming increasingly conspicuous
nowadays, because unscrupulous writers are copying them and putting
them into textbooks. The writers evidently believe that printing
the Chief's ready-made rubbish is an easy way of pandering to the
multi-culti mob.
A lot of the stories that the Chief peddles are clever-aborigine
tales. These are similar to noble-savage fantasies, but they have
imaginary scientific or technical elements. Each clever-aborigine
story seeks to convince readers that some group of aborigines made
great scientific or technological discoveries, and the story may
also claim (implicitly or explicitly) that the aborigines'
achievements contributed mightily to the development of modern
civilization. Clever-aborigine tales come from various sources and
involve various groups of people, but the ones that glorify American
Indians seem to be especially popular with textbook-writers.
•
My account of Chief Thunderbottom is a spoof, of course. There is
no such person. Yet there certainly is a person (or maybe a
bunch of persons) engaged in concocting phony stories about Indians,
and such stories certainly are turning up in schoolbooks. For an
example, look at the sidebar on page 365 of Addison-Wesley
Biology. It is both nonsensical and deceptive, and it
exemplifies the sort of stuff that I associate with my apocryphal
Chief. The sidebar is a clever-aborigine tale titled "Native
American Agriculture."
Before I describe the tale itself, let me observe that pandering is
its only apparent aim. I say this because Addison-Wesley's book
gives no general history of agricultural practices, nor does it
purport to describe the agricultural practices of any other group of
people. In fact, the book's references to agriculture are few, even
if we include the writers' silly attempts to mention agricultural
applications of genetic engineering. The tale about Indian
agriculture is not just phony. It is glaringly incongruous with the
rest of the book, and I assert that its very incongruity marks it
for what it is -- an attempt to exploit a vulgar fad.
The tale begins with a passage of vague, puffy claims about Indians
(or "Native Americans," as Addison-Wesley calls them), and this
passage is soon followed by some smarmy stereotyping -- "Native
Americans base their farming practices and whole life pattern on a
'oneness' with nature and a great respect for all living things.
They take from nature only what is needed and feel it is wrong to
offend nature with pollution." (Sorry, Chief. I've heard all that
sanctimonious stuff before. I've heard about Indians living in
"oneness with nature" or "harmony with nature," but I'm still
waiting for you to tell me what those phrases mean. While you're at
it, please do explain that line about taking only what is "needed."
Just what does that mean? I've learned a little about how some
American Indians have treated natural systems and natural resources,
and I find your stereotype laughable.)
As the tale continues, the student finds that "Scientists who study
the dynamics of life on Earth are beginning to recognize the value
of the practices and beliefs of Native Americans." What the student
does not find is any support for that claim, any hint of who
those "scientists" are, or any hint of what those "practices and
beliefs" may be. The claim is nonsense.
Next, and even worse: The student reads that "Early Native American
agriculture developed some very effective and sophisticated methods
that are used in farming today," and he then reads that the
"methods" comprised selective breeding, crop rotation, irrigation,
and the use of marine organisms to fertilize fields. The intent
here seems clear -- to promote the false notion that those "methods"
were originated by Indians alone, and that the use of such processes
in modern farming is an Indian legacy. This notion -- which later
is reinforced by an explicit claim about Indians' contributing
"farming techniques to modern society" -- is pure bisonflop.
Putting it into a textbook is unconscionable. The truth is that
selective breeding, irrigation and the other enumerated "methods"
were conceived independently by many different peoples, in various
parts of the world, at various times. (Recall, for example, the
selective breeding of pigeons by the ancient Romans, or the
selective breeding of fishes by the ancient Chinese. Or recall the
ancient irrigation systems of the Middle East. No honest person
would lead a student to believe that the people who built those
systems got their ideas from Indians. And no honest person would
hide the fact that irrigation and all the other enumerated "methods"
were well known in Europe before any Europeans came to the New World
and encountered any Indian practices.)
Reading on, the student finds a list that seems to muddle Indian
"crops" with Indian "foods." (There is a difference, Chief, between
crops and foods. Even if some Indians used maple syrup as a food,
this does not mean that they cultivated maple trees as crop plants.)
Next, a claim about the use of rubber-tree sap in making
"waterproofing substances for clothing," and then a predictable item
about herbal remedies: "Native Americans also used and still use
herbs and other plant products for medicines. These medicines
include aspirin, digitalis, and quinine." (That's more bisonflop,
Chief, and we both know it. Tell me, Chief: Why haven't you
described how, or for what purposes, the Indians used their
"aspirin" and their other stuff? And answer me this: Are you aware
that your bogus claims can have the effect of making the student
vulnerable to herbal quackery?)
The tale ends with another passage of puffery, culminating in this
wonderfully empty claim: "As modern society becomes more aware of
the need to conserve resources and save the environment, the ways
of Native Americans are becoming more valuable." I have no idea of
what that is supposed to mean. Maybe it has something to do with
the building of casinos.
It's only a matter of time, I guess, until Chief Thunderbottom
devises a tale depicting some group of Indians as the inventors of
water ("which is still used today"). That will be funny -- until
some panderer puts the tale into a schoolbook.
William J. Bennetta is a professional editor, a fellow of the
California Academy of Sciences, the president of The Textbook
League, and the editor of The Textbook Letter. He writes
often about the propagation of quackery, false "science" and false
"history" in schoolbooks.
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