The Enemy Concept
Wilfred Pelletier's comment:

"For everything you do you must end up fighting--fighting for your rights, good against evil, war against poverty, the fight for peace. The whole base of the western culture has an enemy concept. What would happen if you remove the enemy? How then do you defeat somebody who is on your side? I suspect that if you remove the enemy the culture might collapse."

Pelletier, Wilfred, in "Childhood in an Indian Village" [Somerville, MA: New England Free Press, undated; originally in This Magazine is About Schools, 1969]


Return to Traditional Navajo Clan Practices
Return to Syllabus: Legalization of American Indians
Return to Front Page