What does a truly caring Progressive society look like? What are the Native Roots of Progressivism? This is discussed in the just published 4 volumes of Honoring the Circle: Ongoing Learning from American Indians on Politics and Society.
The first two volumes show the tremendous, largely unrecognized, continuing learning of the West from Indigenous Americans in political-social-economic thought and practice, including the Indigenous roots of contemporary progressive thought. The last two books provide a contemporary Indigenous and progressive political-social-economic theory by unfolding what contemporary societies would be like if they operated according to Indigenous values — which are progressive values - in politics, economics, dealing with the environment and education. What is depicted is a practical vision of what a a truly well working caring Progressive society might look like.
Below is an overview of Honoring the Circle, followed by descriptions of each of the volumes. The books are available at reasonable cost from Amazon as detailed below.
May all proceed to better times.
Warmly,
Steve
Stephen M. Sachs, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, IUPUI; Coordinating Editor, Honoring the Circle; Senior Editor, Indigenous Policy.
Honoring the Circle Now in Print and on Kindle
Honoring the Circle: Ongoing Learning from American Indians on Politics and Society in four volumes provides a comprehensive view of the tremendous, continuing learning from Indians by the west since first contact that has greatly impacted western socio-political thought, institutions and practice, and how further learning would be helpful returning the world to harmonious relationships among people and with the Earth.
The first two volumes, written by leading experts, show how well working inclusive, participatory and mutually supportive Indigenous American societies, wishing good neighbors, Indianized early European settlers. By the time of the Revolution Indian symbols were in wide use and most Americans identified as being a mix of the European and the Indian. Such leaders as Roger Williams, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, meeting regularly with Indians, accepted Native values of diversity and democracy in shaping American institutions.
In Europe, from first contact with Indians, a myriad of reports from America that the Natives "had no kings" inspired the idea that rights were inalienable, as Locke, Rousseau, Marx and all major political philosophies were greatly influenced by Indian ways.
Some of the Indian influence in Europe returned to impact American thinking, even as an Indian influenced American philosophy of pragmatism was developing, flowering today with Burnie Sanders and the progressive movement. The Women's, African American and LGBTQ movements all have Native roots and ongoing influences, as does the environmental movement, with increasing Indian leadership, as at Standing Rock, along with growing Indian voices in U.S, public affairs.
Honoring the Circle, volumes III and IV show that U.S. culture has been moving toward Indigenous ways of seeing, while contemporary problems, such as dealing with the environment and with diversity are similar to those Native peoples dealt with successfully, making Indigenous approaches relevant in solving today's major problems. These books unfold how contemporary societies can do much better, with people living well together and with the Earth, by applying Indigenous values: In politics and economics by respecting each person as unique, seeing diversity as a strength, enhancing democracy with contemporary communications, and equalizing political and economic power in equalitarian, people supporting societies; With the environment by understanding that everything is interconnected, but each situation unique; and in education by facilitating the development of unique, whole individuals as holistic thinking, problem solving, members of society.
"Honoring the Circle is a very important and monumental work. Its talented team of authors have been on the forefront of revisionist American history that recaptures the true spirit of America’s founding. The authors document not only the profound influence Native America had on the founding of the United States, but make a strong case for its continuing influence (and relevance). A significant portion of the books shows how Indigenous approaches can contribute to solving the major political, economic, environmental and educational problems of today. Honoring the Circle is destined to make a highly influential contribution to American history, and should be taught widely in colleges and universities."
- Glenn Aparicio Parry, Nautilus Award winning author of Original Thinking: A Radical Revisiting of Time, Humanity and Nature and Original Politics: Making Politics Sacred Again.
"The Knowledgeable - and importantly, readable - scholars behind Honoring the Circle have provided a valuable, systematic look at the-too-little-acknowledged impact of indigenous North American philosophies on European thought. What has so long been attributed to the solely Euro-formed "Enlightenment" is significantly attached to Europeans' having encountered the governmental, social and economic structures happily governing the great woodland confederacies, with their participatory governments, mutual social recognition and inclusion; and gift economies cementing massive alliances whose purpose was peace. The influence of Indigenous practicality is felt to this day, particularly in movements of women's solidarity, LGBTQ rights, drives to preserve the environment, and modern "socialist" principles. The terminology may be Western, but the concepts are Indigenous, as Honoring the Circle demonstrates throughout the four volumes."
- Barbara Alice Mann, author of Spirits of Blood, Spirits of Breath: The Twinned Cosmos of Indigenous America and Iroquoian Women: The Gantowisas
Honoring the Circle (Waterside Productions, 2020) is available from Amazon, amazon.com. Each of the four volumes is $18.95 paper, $9.95 Kindle.
Links to Books:
Volume 1:
Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1949001830
Ebook: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08P2JM5XR
Volume 2:
Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1949001857
Ebook: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08P2F5235
Volume 3:
Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1949001873
Ebook: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08P2F5NPQ
Volume 4:
Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/dp/194900189X
Ebook: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08P2DZS9V
Descriptions of the volumes
Volume I: The Impact of American Indians on Western Politics and Society to 1800
Honoring the Circle: Ongoing Learning from American Indians on Politics and Society, Volume I: The Impact of American Indians on Western Politics and Society to 1800 illuminates the tremendous impact American Indians have had on political, economic and social ideas, institutions and ways since first contact with Europeans. Recognizing that when people of different cultures interact, cultural exchange occurs, Volume I analyzes how traditional inclusive, participatory and mutually supportive American Indian societies functioned well, enabling their strong influence on the West.
At contact Indians, wishing good neighbors, worked closely with early European settlers to educate them in Native ways. To varying degrees this Indianized the Europeans, leading to appreciation of democracy and diversity, in an Indianized American culture. Cultural impact is revealed in early American literature. It is distinct from Europe's, by its inclusion of the Indian.
Native Americans were well respected in the English colonies, which applied Indian ways of council in town meetings and elected assemblies. By the time of the American Revolution, Indian symbols were in wide use in the colonies. Most European Americans identified as being a mix of the European and the Indian. The Sons of Liberty dressed as Mohawks in the Boston Tea Party out of respect and identification with Native ways.
Important leaders such as Roger Williams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine interacted regularly with Indians. Moved by Native views of fundamental rights, political participation and federalism, they adopted such principles in American political institutions as in the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, Constitution and state constitutions. Indian-style respectful discourse was widely adopted, including in procedures of the U.S. Congress, contrasting with the rowdiness of Britain's Parliament.
In Europe, from first contact, a flood of reports was received from the Americas with great interest on how Indigenous Americans "had no kings" or property. While among Europeans there was a mix of positive and negative views of Natives of "the New World," reports were overwhelmingly positive about Indians' freedom and good character.
These reports had great impact on European thinkers. Beginning with Thomas More's Utopia, in 1519, numerous writers, including Montaigne and Voltaire, used Indian characters and imagined Indian societies to critique European societies and politics.
Every major Western political philosophical tradition has been greatly affected by contact with Native Americans. Thomas Hobbes, who had negative views of Indians, began one of the two major shifts in mainstream Western thought resulting from interaction with Indians. Previously, nature had been seen as the end to which something aspired. Beginning with Hobbes, nature became seen as the origin from which things arose, with Indians living in, or near, a "state of nature." The second Indian-influenced shift came with John Locke. For the first time in Europe, he expressed the idea that rights were inalienable. Locke was greatly influenced by Indian ways, though his reaction to those ways sometimes involved agreeing with them, sometimes opposing them, and sometimes inspiring new trains of thought. His Indian-influenced ideas, like those of others in Europe, often reverberated to great effect in America.
The ideas of Rousseau, more Indian-influenced than Locke, carried Native influence to the French Revolution and New Deal Liberalism. Socialist and anarchist thinkers’ views were greatly affected by Indian influences transmitted through such writers.
Honoring the Circle recognizes that Indian-inspired perspectives are one of many organic chains of interacting ideas--absorbed, reformulated and passed on by creative individuals interacting in interweaving cultures.
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Volume II: The Continuing Impact of American Indian Ways in North America and the World in the Nineteenth Century and Beyond
Honoring the Circle: Ongoing Learning from American Indians on Politics and Society, Volume II: The Continuing Impact of American Indian Ways in North America and the World in the Nineteenth Century and Beyond shows the continuing dynamics of the strands of American Indian influenced thought, begun among colonists and founding Americans, shaping the U.S. with new Native influences. This was well recognized among Americans in 1800, who considered themselves a fusion of the European and the Indian. Andrew Jackson's forced removal of Indians to the west began to hide that reality. This can be seen with European image of the Indian Goddess, first envisioned as dressed in buckskins and feathers; by the time her statue was placed atop the U.S. capitol in 1863 as the Goddess of Liberty, the outer clothing had become that of a Roman Goddess, but the Indian Woman remained beneath.
Early in the nineteenth century Indian influences were plainly visible in the writings of John C. Calhoun and in the many Tammany Societies, including New York's Tammany Hall, founded to promote discussion of issues of the day and named in honor of a Delaware chief. Building on the influence of Franklin, Jefferson and others, an American Philosophy of Pragmatism developed, with strong Native roots among its interacting strands. Important contributors were Emerson and Thoreau, who had considerable contact with Indians, and later Jane Addams, James, Peirce and Dewey. Indian voices that shaped U.S. affairs included those of William Apess, Black Hawk, Elias Boudinot and George Copway. Indian influences have continued in Pragmatism's off-shoots and interactions, blossoming in the twenty-first century with President Obama and the current progressive movement.
The Women's liberation movement began at contact, as Europeans saw the balanced reciprocity of women and men in Native communities. Among its early advocates who had close relations with Indians were Lydia Maria Child and Catharine Maria Sedgwick. Later, Matilda Joslyn Gage and others were inspired by Haudenosaunee women, as the women's movement became a major force. From the start, the women's movement was involved with civil rights broadly, including Indian rights, with women forming much of the core of anti-slavery movement. The movement for African-American rights has long had Native and Pragmatic roots in the valuing of diversity, as seen in the work of W. E. B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King Jr., Richard Wright and Cornell West. The more recent gay, lesbian, and transgender movement also has inspiration from Native practice.
Over time, a growing number of Indigenous Americans have become active in the U.S. mainstream. Charles Eastman, Ella Deloria and Nick Black Elk were early contributors to mainstream understanding of Indians, while Vine Deloria Jr. was one of those contributing directly to the Pragmatic tradition. A major stimulus for American and world appreciation of Indigenous American ways was the counterculture movement of the 1960s. Many young people sought out Indians, and took interest in Indian ways as a positive alternative to mainstream western culture. This, along with the civil rights movement. contributed greatly to a larger public interest in Native ways and assisted Indian renewal and the shift in U.S. Indian policy to self-determination.
The environmental movement has been influenced since contact by Indigenous concerns for maintaining balance with nature. But it began with Indian-influenced Thoreau and Emerson. A significant number of environmentalists and activists, such as Baird Callicott and Gary Snyder, have stirred interest in Native relations with nature. There have been an increasing number of Native environmental professionals and activists. Indians have become leaders in the movement, as seen the recent oil pipeline protests at Standing Rock, while Native voices have been more prevalent in public life.
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Volume III: What Would[1] Be Good to Continue Learning from Indigenous Peoples
in Politics and Economics
Honoring the Circle: Ongoing Learning from American Indians on Politics and Society, Volume III: What Would[2] Be Good to Continue Learning from Indigenous Peoples in Politics and Economics opens showing how the main strands of American culture, including science, have been moving toward Indigenous ways of seeing. Moreover, current societal problems, such as dealing with diversity, inequality and an environmental crisis have paralleled those handled well by traditional Native societies, making Indigenous values relevant in confronting contemporary issues.
Indigenous values stem from seeing all beings and all things as unique, and related as a family. All contain spirit and must be respected. Diversity is a strength, as each unique limited person has a different perspective and abilities to contribute to all. Everyone needs to be heard in making decisions, and supported in an inclusive, equalitarian, participatory process with leaders as facilitators. Leaders, chosen for their virtue, including wisdom, can give guidance. As everything is related, all relationships need to be in balance among people and with nature. As relations regularly fall out of balance, it is continually necessary to restore harmony, including in issues of justice. Power and wealth need to be kept reasonably equal. Values need to be applied according to current conditions, which vary with location, with a view for the future.
Applying these values in the twenty-first century means creating and maintaining equalitarian, inclusive participatory democracy, as shown in numerous practical examples. That requires fair and reasonably timed voting with equal easy access to at least legislative and executive offices, and on some issues, with open and sufficiently and equally available dialogue among citizens and between citizens and private and public institutions. Election campaigns need to be publicly financed. In today's society, many methods of open communication and discussion are available. These include electronic and face-to-face town halls and dialogues, including requiring officials to consult with citizens on major issues. Citizen participation can take place directly on some issues, as in participatory budgeting. Representative focus groups, dialoguing study groups, and conversations with officials can increase public input.
Today, a well operating civil society representing all interests on a relatively equal basis is necessary. Virtually all groups--including public, private, and nonprofit organizations--need to function participatorily. Many team process businesses, NGOs and government agencies do this, as it leads to better functioning organizations by virtually all measures.
Power needs to be institutionally and economically balanced, with a market economy of small businesses achieving economy of scale of buying, selling and research through federations, as in the Mondragon Cooperatives, with public utilities where market competition is inadequate. Government's role is to keep the economy balanced, preventing oligopoly or monopoly through regulation, taxes and subsidies. Government needs to regulate to prevent or minimize harm to the public, and to provide public goods as necessary for the public welfare and to create and maintain equal opportunity (e.g. education for participation in participatory society and adequate accessible health care). Inequalities can be eliminated through targeted benefits, taxes and regulation.
Electronic and other media need to be independent public media and/or widely owned, with equal-time rules so that a wide range of views can be expressed in a proportionally equitable manner, with regulation as necessary to prevent clear harm, such as fraud, by independent bodies allowing quick appeals (e.g. fact checking on social media). Justice needs to be restorative, as public policy aims to facilitate the development of whole people in a caring community.
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Volume IV: What Would Be Good to Continue Learning from Indigenous Peoples
about the Environment and Education[3]
Honoring the Circle: Ongoing Learning from American Indians on Politics and Society, Volume IV: What Would Be Good to Continue Learning from Indigenous Peoples about the Environment and Education[4] opens showing the importance of making an Indigenous approach to the world's complex environmental crises. Narrowly focused Western science and culture have made great advances, enabling people to live longer and better. But failing to consider broad and long-term impacts of actions has brought the Earth to the threshold of environmental catastrophes. Human-influenced climate change is the most pressing, but pollution, overuse of resources and overpopulation are all involved.
Indigenous decisionmakers would have avoided this crisis by noting that everything is part of an interrelated whole. Western culture and science, is moving in this direction, but needs to further integrate Native approaches, considering side effects of actions over time before acting. As situations change and the future is unpredictable, policy must be reviewed regularly. For example, new chemicals should not be approved for use before extensive investigation of their safety, with ongoing research on the effects of their use for updating their regulation.
Western culture and science, have underestimated differences in locations and people, assuming that what works well for one will work for another. A farmer in Brazil, who purchased a harvester that functioned perfectly in Iowa almost lost his crop when it would not work on his Brazilian farm. Studies of the efficacy of a drug in one demographic segment often do not indicate its efficacy or side effects in another group. The Native notion of difference of place needs more attention.
Understanding diversity also needs to be applied in education, adjusting for different learning styles and rates of individuals and cultures. U.S. education has often functioned poorly, but schools at all levels have done very well by taking an Indigenous approach, seeing education as providing guidance and protection in facilitating unique creative whole individuals' learning who they are, as responsible community members, through participating in a variety of positive experiences. The private coed Putney School, an example of Indian-influenced John Dewey's progressive education, is strong on academics, especially in the arts. It involves students in problem-solving and seeing all sides of issues in small classes with numerous individual projects. Students have many leadership opportunities, including serving with faculty and staff on the community council and school committees. They discuss community issues in assemblies and participate in running the school and its farm through work that may include tasks in community service organizations. With concern for the environment, Putney also offers experience in nature.
East Harlem public schools, in one of the poorest communities in the U.S., went from the lowest to the highest educational achievement ratings for many years by moving to a variety of small programs for students with different needs. Cross-culturally, Nueva Escuela schools in rural Colombia, based on research on what works, with student team research and community involvement, outperformed urban schools. In higher education, students excelled when engaged with the subject matter in dialogue, simulation, guided imagination and community involvement.
In conclusion, the four volumes of Honoring the Circle show the extensive ongoing learning of the West from Indians and the increasing advantage of living according to Indigenous values, as doing so comes more to the fore, as exemplified by the U.S. progressive movement, accompanied by an increase in Native voices, with a surge in Indians elected to office.
About the Authors
Stephen M. Sachs, an applied philosopher, is Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Indiana University in Indianapolis (IUPUI). He is lead author and coordinating editor of Recreating the Circle: Renewal of American Indian Self-Determination, Senior Editor of Indigenous Policy, and former Coordinating Editor of Workplace Democracy.
Bruce E Johansen, is Research Professor, Emeritus, at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Among his fifty published books are several on the influence of Native American political systems on United States political and legal institutions. Among them are Forgotten Founders (1982) and Native American Political Systems and the Evolution of Democracy: An Annotated Bibliography (Greenwood, 1996; volume 2, 1999). Johansen writes frequently about environmental issues.
Ain Haas is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Indiana University in Indianapolis (IUPUI). His publications include articles on Indigenous peoples of North America and North Europe, comparative social systems, juvenile delinquency, and workplace democracy.
Betty Booth Donohue (Cherokee) is an independent scholar. Among her publications are Bradford’s Indian Book: Being the True Roote and Rise of American Letters as Revealed by the Native Text Embedded in Of Plimoth Plantation (2011). Her chapter “Remembering Muskrat: Native Poetics and the American Indian Oral Tradition” appears in the Cambridge History of American Poetry (2015).
Donald A. Grinde (Yamasee) is a leading scholar on the influence of American Indians on Western political thought and institutions. He is Professor of Transnational/American Studies, State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo. His publications include Exemplar of Liberty: Native America and the Evolution of Democracy, coauthored with Bruce Johansen (1991); Debating Democracy: Native American Legacy of Freedom, coauthored with Bruce Johansen and Barbara Mann, with a foreword by Vine Deloria Jr. (1998); A Political History of Native Americans (2002), for which he served as author and editor, and which was awarded “Outstanding Academic Title, 2003” by Choice Magazine.
Sally Roesch Wagner is a longtime contributor of knowledge about Native American influences upon Western society, particular on women’s issues. Wagner is Founding Director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation, and Adjunct Faculty in the Renée Crown University Honors Program at Syracuse University. Her publications include Sisters in Spirit: Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Influence on Early American Feminists (2001); Matilda Joslyn Gage: She Who Holds the Sky (1999); and A Time of Protest: Suffragists Challenge the Republic, 1870–1887 (1992).
Ain Haas is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Indiana University in Indianapolis (IUPUI). His publications include articles on Indigenous peoples of North America and North Europe, comparative social systems, juvenile delinquency, and workplace democracy.
Walter Robinson (Cherokee) is a lecturer in the Philosophy Department and the Native American Studies Program at IUPUI. His current interests include cross-cultural philosophies, philosophical psychology of religion, Asian and American Indian philosophies and religions, and environmental ethics based on Deep Ecology. Among his publications is Primal Way and the Pathology of Civilization (2012).
Jonathon York, is a scholar on the Indian impact on the political thinking of the French philosopher Montesquieu. York is Instructor of Government at Mountain View College in Dallas, Texas. He is descended from the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, Kiowa, Kanawha River Lenape, and Cape Girardeau refugees.
Donna K. Dial Dial is Associate Professor Emerita of Economics at IUPUI and President and Program Director of Economic Education for Clergy. Her work encompasses comparative economics and social applications of economics.
Christina A. Clamp is a professor with the School of Arts and Sciences and is the director of Co-operatives and Community Economic Development at Southern New Hampshire University. Clamp has researched the Mondragon Cooperatives for many years. Among her publications is "Social Entrepreneurship in the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation and the Challenges of Successful Replication," co-authored with Innocentus Alhamis, Journal of Entrepreneurship, September 2010. She is on the board of directors of the Industrial Cooperatives Association (ICA) Group (Boston), the Food Cooperative Initiative (MN) and the Allston/Brighton Community Development Corporation (Boston). She also serves on the Steering Committee of the Mel King Institute of the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations. Formerly, she was a member of the board of directors of Childspace Development and Training Institute (Philadelphia), and the National Cooperative Business Association (Washington DC).
Amy Fatzinger is Associate Professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Arizona. She specializes in American Indian Literature and Film. Her writings include, "Indians in the House": "Revisiting American Indians in Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House Books (2008); and Beseeching the breath: rediscovering the connections in land, language, and spirituality (2000).
Phyllis M. Gagnier (Algonquin) has worked with numerous Indian nations on educational development, conflict resolution and cultural projects, including the development of the Telly Award winning substance abuse intervention parenting video, From the Heart of a Child, and Awee Sha No Tsa (“My Child Will Return to Me”). She was a co-author of Recreating the Circle: The Renewal of American Indian Self Determination.
