For an Amerindian Autohistory

An Essay on the Foundations of a Social Ethic

by Georges E Sioui

Born and raised near Quebec City, Sioui is proud to be a Huron and an Amerindian. He is fully aware of the injustices that the aboriginal people of North America have suffered - and continue to suffer - at the hands of Euroamericans. He is convinced that the greatness of Amerindians does not lie only in the past and that Native peoples will play an even more important role in the future by providing ideas essential to creating a viable way of life for North America and the world. For An Amerindian Autohistory is a work not only of metahistory but of moral reflection. Georges Sioui contrasts Euroamerican ethnocentrism and feelings of racial superiority with the Amerindian belief in the "Great Circle of Life" and shows that human beings must establish intellectual and emotional connections with the entire living world if they hope to achieve abundance, quality, and peace for all. While this is a polemical work, Sioui never descends to recrimination or vituperative condemnation, even when that might seem justified. Instead, he has given us a polemic that is written at the level of philosophy.

— ©1995

Return to summary list