Respecting Mother Earth Native Americans do not worship the land; they see the land as an expression of the Creator. Treating the earth with the same respect and love that a person shows his or her mother is a way of giving thanks to the Creator for the gift of being alive. To Native Americans, the earth is sacred... a living entity that exists for the benefit of all forms of life. The earth plays a central role in the lives of Indians, The land is always stalking people. The land makes people live right. The land looks after us. The idea of dividing landscape into plots of individually owned land is a concept alien to Native Americans. That is why the Indians could not understand when the Pilgrims built fences to define property lines. How could anyone own the earth? Non-Indians tend to think of themselves as separate from the earth; it is something to be mastered. They think in terms of owning land... of land as a commodity. Even the word "frontier" is based on the notion that a certain area lies undeveloped, awaiting settlement and civilization, which implies that land is not good until it is used for some purpose, a belief that is incomprehensible to Native Americans. GOLDENBEAR
Respecting Mother Earth
Native Americans do not worship the land; they see the land as an expression of the Creator. Treating the earth with the same respect and love that a person shows his or her mother is a way of giving thanks to the Creator for the gift of being alive. To Native Americans, the earth is sacred... a living entity that exists for the benefit of all forms of life. The earth plays a central role in the lives of Indians, The land is always stalking people. The land makes people live right.
The land looks after us. The idea of dividing landscape into plots of individually owned land is a concept alien to Native Americans. That is why the Indians could not understand when the Pilgrims built fences to define property lines. How could anyone own the earth? Non-Indians tend to think of themselves as separate from the earth; it is something to be mastered. They think in terms of owning land... of land as a commodity. Even the word "frontier" is based on the notion that a certain area lies undeveloped, awaiting settlement and civilization, which implies that land is not good until it is used for some purpose, a belief that is incomprehensible to Native Americans. GOLDENBEAR