To You We Shall Return

The Lakota philosopher offers a personal account of how Native Americans adapted to the environment—and what we can learn from their example.

Part memoir, part cultural manifesto, To You We Shall Return offers a comparison between Euro-American and Native American approaches to the environment. Lakota philosopher Joseph M. Marshall discusses how native cultures adapted to fit within the environment, as opposed to changing it drastically to fit human needs and comforts. Through personal anecdote, detailed history, and Lakota tales, Marshall takes us back to his childhood and shows us how we, too, can learn to love our planet.

Suggesting a shift in our contemporary thinking, Marshall argues that relating to the earth in a less harmful way does not require a drastic change in lifestyles. Instead, revisiting the methods of adaptation and coexistence with the earth will foster a renewed respect which will ultimately benefit mankind as well.