Hi Alexander. Thank you for this comment. I don't think that generosity and communal orientation is always present in Native cultures, but my research suggests that it was a central practice of a number of Native communities (like the Blackfoot, Lakota, Navajo, Natives of the Cheyenne River territory, and others). The reason for the focus on the Blackfoot in this article is because they were the people with whom Maslow spent 6 weeks living in the summer of 1938. It does seem that there are different stories about the level to which Maslow borrowed. While many Blackfoot do believe Maslow appopriated their ideas, Blackfoot scholars Ryan Heavy Head and the late Narcisse Blood don't believe this is the case. Like you're saying, they believe Maslow did his own research and came to his own conclusions. But they do maintain that his experience at the Blackfoot reserve was foundational to his trajectory, changing his inquiry from how social orders are maintained through dominance to trying to understand how humans become self-actualized. This is because, according to Maslow, he considered the Blackfoot Reserve a place where self-actualization was the norm, unlike his own culture.

Some of the points you make, however, have been worth my correcting, which I have attempted to do so in the revised version I posted today. If you have a chance to read, I'd welcome your thoughts. - Teju