Shortly before his death, Plenty Coups—the last great chief of the Crow Nation—told his story; yet, he told it only up to a certain point. He said: "When the buffalo went away, the hearts of my people fell to the ground, and they could not lift them up again. After that, nothing happened." This precise point—which tells the story of a people facing the demise of a way of life they had lived for centuries—is the subject of the philosophical and ethical inquiry presented in this book. Philosopher Jonathan Lear argues that Plenty Coups’s story raises a profound ethical question that transcends its specific time and challenges us all: How does one face the possibility of the collapse of one’s own culture?
It is a vulnerability that can affect us all—for we are all inhabitants of a civilization, and civilizations themselves are susceptible to historical forces. How can we live with this vulnerability?
Can we rise to the occasion and face such a challenge with courage? Drawing upon the anthropology and history available regarding Native American tribes during the era of their confinement on reservations, and relying on philosophy and psychoanalytic theory, Jonathan Lear explores the story of the Crow Nation—a people who faced a profound predicament as they attempted to answer these very questions—questions that bear directly upon our place in the world. His book represents a deeply significant philosophical investigation into a specific vulnerability that strikes directly at the heart of the human condition.