The Lost People: The Loss of Indigenous Culture and the Roots of “Wetiko”

A Conversation with Author and Talk Show Host Thom Hartmann

“We need to replace the Four E’s – extraction, exploitation, extortion and extinction -- with the Four C’s, cooperation, collaboration, cultivation and community.” -- Swami Beyondananda

The lost people.

What an intriguing title. Who are those “lost people”? Are they an ancient people whose ways and history are lost to us? Or are they the “hungry ghosts” in our own society, unhinged from meaning and purpose, who have acquiesced to, and perpetuate the “taker” culture?

According to award-winning talk show host and prolific author Thom Hartmann, the answer to both questions is “yes.” There is a profound and significant connection between the “lost” ways of our indigenous ancestors, and the many “lost souls” who inhabit modern industrial society.

“The Lost People” was an essay Thom wrote nearly 25 years ago that he recently re-published, that is perfectly timed for our times, when we are re-examining both the genocide of Native Peoples of the new world, and forced to reckon with the fruits of 300 years of black African slavery on this continent. The article explores the unfathomable loss of the indigenous heritage of European peoples, and how that led to the domination of Native peoples, and the unsuccessful attempts to dominate nature.

The essay – first published in 1998 – was inspired by a conversation Thom had with a Native American elder at a ceremony, and informed by meeting an Aboriginal elder who suffered greatly at the hands of white settlers. Thom also introduces the word “Wetiko”, a term he discovered in Native American scholar Jack Forbes’ book first published in 1978, Columbus and Other Cannibals: The Wetiko Disease of Exploitation, Imperialism, and Terrorism. Indeed, “Wetiko” means cannibal, and that is the term many Native Peoples used to characterize the white invaders.

To find out how we got here, and the reunion that holds the key to our species’ survival and thrival, please join us for this eye-opening and sobering conversation. In the process, you’ll learn about the two entirely different Maori cultures in New Zealand, and how each came about. You’ll hear about an indigenous society that occupied what is now New Orleans that had a four-tiered hierarchical society with an intriguing twist. And you’ll discover a nomadic Malaysian tribe that lived in the “dream world” they considered the “real” world, and used their dreams to navigate “this world.”

Most importantly, you will learn how the shared trauma of all peoples living in a dominate-or-be-dominated world has brought us to the brink of extinction – and the cultural reweaving required for us to navigate this evolutionary passage.

Thom Hartmann, ranked by Talkers Magazine as the #1 progressive talk show host in America for over a decade. His show airs live nationwide daily (M-F) on SiriusXM from 12-3pm ET. He’s also a four-time Project Censored-award-winning, New York Times best-selling author of more than 30 books in print in 17 languages.

Thom has co-written and been featured in 6 climate-related documentaries with Leonardo DiCaprio, and his book The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight, about the end of the age of oil and climate change, is an international bestseller and used as a textbook in many schools and colleges.

Live transcript: https://otter.ai/u/700M_L0o225LHAmh3bXNpuoJaZg

To find out more about Thom Hartmann’s work: https://www.thomhartmann.com/

To read ‘The Lost People’ https://hartmannreport.com/p/the-lost-people