Part One : Excavating traditional reality -- Seeing through the rules -- Signals of difference -- Rules of traditional times -- Ethic of non-interference -- Ethic that anger not be shown -- Ethic respecting praise and gratitude -- Conservation-withdrawal tactic -- Notion that the time must be right -- Looking for a synthesis -- Natural science versus spiritual belief -- "Being Indian is a state of mind" -- Poor, nasty, brutish and short? -- Understanding the present -- Changed physical context -- Sudden losses -- Individual freedom of choice -- Internal esteem system -- Indian family -- Certainty in a Native continuum -- Threat of starvation -- Integrated existence -- Traditional mechanisms for coping -- Family-centred in-group -- Doctrine of original sanctity -- Conclusion.