One of the people who stopped by on Christmas day said something about how the homeless were the new Indians. He was referencing the fact that the homeless have theirs camps and territories and get along with each other pretty well, but when the city grows and wealth(ier) people move into the area the homeless people get shoved farther out.

Then, this morning as I went into the local grocery mart I noticed their outdoor patio furniture (for sale) was all padlocked together. I remember thinking “well that’s silly, who’s going to steal patio furniture.” immediately followed by “oh wait…yeah, those guys might steal it, some of them.”

This got me to wondering if the homeless community is a bit more like the native American way of living than the western style of living after all.

Everyone knows whose camp is where, everyone knows whose territory is whose. But around that they all move around and share spaces. Then there are the belongings. They definitely have individual belongings but they seem to share most of those belongings at the drop of a hat.

I’m still trying to figure that part out.

I’ve never made a study of native American ways of life so my thoughts may be without any merit, but it is still an interesting question to ponder.