For diverse historical reasons that have, by now, become hegemonic knowledge themselves, American Indians and their relationship with the environment have been used, over the past five hundred years, as mirror imaginations of the dominant, so-called Western society’s ecologies. These perceptions and illusions have provided innumerable examples used for political debates and applied policies, either as cautionary stories or as alternatives to be imitated. The debates over the perception and reinterpretations of Native ecological relationships are illuminating for postmodern discourse because they show the strengths and limits of the approach.