Discuss: The Crying Indian

Ginger, your article is extremely thought-provoking on many levels and I thoroughly enjoyed it. . . thank you!! I’d be interested in hearing your impressions of another organization that the Burson-Marsteller agency has done work for in recent years: The Clean Energy States Alliance. Is it “astroturf”?

Thanks for your comment and question, Carol!  My internal skeptic also wakes up whenever I see Burson-Marsteller, but I wouldn’t describe the Clean Energy States Alliance as astroturf.  They are a group of state-sponsored renewable energy groups.  They are managed by the Clean Energy Group of Montpelier, VT, whose stated mission is “the greater use of clean energy technologies . . . through innovation in finance, technology and policy.”  You will notice the absence of the word “conservation” in that statement and in their policy papers.  So while I wouldn’t describe the Clean Energy Group as astroturf either, I might call them an advocacy group for various renewable energy industries. 

Sorry to be long-winded—these things get difficult to sort out these days!

This is an amazing article, thank you! It leaves me with a lot of food for thought. I do know that the aluminum industry is now killing Iceland, who would have thought? (http://www.savingiceland.org). It seems that big business has a hard time being anything less than insidious. In any event, I am finding it repulsive to drink out of disposable containers. I’m hoping the feeling will spread. While it may not change the planet, it allows one to stand for personal integrity. Perhaps that idea will spread too.

I’ve been advocating, for years, the requirement that ALL manufacturers should be required to take back everything they make when the consumer no longer wants it. This would necessitate an entire rethinking on how they make their products, especially in how long the product is used for and the ease of recycling it

Wow!
    I have been alive for most of the time frame discussed in your paper.  I can remember my emotive response to many of the situations described in your report as they occurred. Thanks for the research and article.  Historical perspective is vital too comprehension of complex issues. The simplifying or “plastic-ing” of America needs thorough understanding and an open-mindedness if we are to enable any real or meaningful change to occur.

WOW..That ad has had a big positive affect on me. It still makes me cry..I have attended stomp dances w Cherokee people.I have just about given up on them bec so many are so pro war.Here in Muskogee Oklahoma the Chereokee Nation has build a Monticello looking health care center.The art work in it celebrates the “Christian” Seminaries that brought religion to these people SO sad..Maybe we will get it together when we to live more sustainiably..

Thanks Ginger, for examining corporate greenwashing. Please consider exploring Orion’s own legacy along these lines- Chevron-Texaco money flowing into reportage, BeefUSA & Native Energy supported carbon offsets, the same CIA literary connection that perverted the Paris Review, the mysterious investment-banker founder unavailable to answer email, & the Editors cover-up of such trails.
Thanks in advance!

This is an incredible article. As a child born in 1960, the power of that commercial came back full force as I remembered every moment of the crying indian psa. Later, I majored in environmental conservation and canvassed neighborhoods for Colorado’s (failed) bottle recycling bill. This is the kind of article that makes me want to support Orion, the kind of article that I will send on to friends—especially all those folks addicted to “Mad Men”(!)—and that every american now trying to wade through information and raise children to “help the earth” whether it be through buying local, rejecting bottled water, recycling, etc., really needs to read. Fantastic article! Since I was raised in Champaign-Urbana and now live in the Pac Northwest, I loved the geographic trajectory of your piece as well, taking us on your journey with you.
Vivid and real. Thank you!