The curse of the cigar store Indian

 By Peter Jackson  Local Journalism Initiative Reporter You may be old enough to remember a time when tossing an empty pop can or candy wrapper from a moving car didn’t seem like a big deal. Modern-day environmentalism was largely a product of the counterculture movement of the 1960s. It was a time when the younger generation questioned the wisdom of the society they inherited, its relentless march towards industrialization, its zeal for war and its myriad racial and social injustices. So, when public service advertisement nicknamed the “Crying Indian” first aired on American TV in 1971, the timing couldn’t have been better. It showed an Indigenous man in full native garb paddling his canoe through increasingly littered waters. He comes ashore and walks by more litter, finally stopping at a…

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