: 4) Just turn them into slaves like the rubber companies on the Putomayo River.SDF: Actually, NJ, all of what you have said is true, and worthy of discussion, but it's probably beside the point. I don't think that any of what you have described is actually happening to the Hopi. I feel that, if we are really to engage MDG on his pet topic, we should keep the conversation focused on the Hopi, since they, and not the Yanomami nor the Guaraní, are MDG's target.
It should, however, be a matter of going concern for anyone with a REAL concern with Hopi practices (such as this thing with eagles that MDG pretends to be so upset about), that they actually try to change the situation of REAL Hopi individuals, and that they CHANGE THEMSELVES in the process of working with the Hopi, that they divest themselves of their position of class privilege through their work. Everything else is a communiqué issued from the halls of the privilege. Can you imagine what the Hopi Tribal Council must think about the likes of MDG?
The point is that those who aspire to being more than "liberals" should be working with the working class, not criticizing their practices from afar under some false pretense that they "know what's happening". Liberals, of course, can say anything they want, and when the shit hits the fan you will see their true colors.
Me personally, I look forward to a lifetime of work with working-class children in the US, immigrant refugees from Latin America mostly, since my current routine allows me to control my diet (no meat, no grease, no exceptions) in a way so as to insure my own bodily survival. So that will be my politics. Should I happen to blunder into a good health insurance program sometime in the future, well, the sky's the limit.
