American Indian Culture and Research Journal

Within the next week, most of you will enter a supermarket that has electric-eye doors for convenience, plays soothing Muzak, and presents its produce in a display worthy of Better Homes and Gardens. Oranges treated with chemicals to make them turn the desired color, apples coated with wax, and glistening fruits and vegetables sprayed with water are placed beside brightly colored packaging that screams "one-third off," or "fewer calories," or "organically grown, natural food." As you speed through the express lane checkout and glance at your watch, you select the shortest distance to sprint to your car, located near the handicap parking stall. Weaving between the parked cars, you manage to hit the main flow of traffic, never giving a second thought to the series of choices you have just made, many of which were influenced by the environment and the store manager as much as by you. In short, many of those value-laden decisions derived, whether consciously or subconsciously, from the culture in which you operate. So it is with all people.