ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book is about American Indians. It presents a selective description of one Indian community, the six undred Fox Indians who live just outside Tama, Iowa. The book is also about white men; some of them are neighbors of the Fox Indians, and one is the writer. All these white men, these men formed by the Western tradition, when they looked across at the Fox, were estranged. Around the world there are many millions of such men, the tribal peoples and rural peasants of the world. These few white men are like the many other Westerners who chance upon encounters with tribal peoples and rural peasants around the world: Peace Corpsmen, businessmen, drifters, missionaries, privates and generals, VISTA workers. It seems plausible, however, in any event interestingly possible, that the underlying causes of estrangement are purely cognitive.
