Mother Earth Essay

All Native American cultures have strong beliefs in life after death, although the means of reaching the next life may vary from tribe to tribe. They traditionally believe that death is a part of a natural cycle in which their spirits are transported back and forth between this world and the spirit world so that they can bring renewal and new life when they return. Most consider this transition to be an honor or privilege since it will ensure the survival of their people. In Native American culture, it is believed that neglect of tribal rituals can result in death and sickness, because the spirit returns without blessings, having been unable to enter the other world. According

Have you ever wonder how the world was created from another culture’s perspective? Native Americans used creation myths to explained to their people how the world was developed overtime. Creation myths are a big part of the Native American culture. they have been passed down from generation to generation. In the creation myths, harmony with nature, rituals, and strong social values are shown in each myths. The purpose of having strong social value in these myths is to teach younger Native Americans valuable lesson if they ever do something bad. These myths reveals how the rituals were created and their intentions for doing it. Creation myths has harmony with nature in it to show a very close kinship between them

According to John Heckewelder Indians believe that everything has been made by the Lord for the benefit of human beings. He says that they believe every men have share in things created by Lord including rivers, seas, mountain etc. their religious beliefs are concerned with the supreme universal family and everyone is eligible to be served. They show hospitality and fulfill essentials of the people in need. In regard to property they believe that no one is the owner of specific thing. Lord made everything for all human beings so anyone can use anything because it has been created by the Lord.

Religious beliefs varied between tribes, but there was a widespread belief in a Great Spirit who created the earth, and who pervaded everything. The constitution of the Iroquois stated every time assembly is held, “ they shall make an address and offer thanks to the earth, to the streams of water, to the animals”. Native American believe everything on earth was given by the Mother Earth, so they must pay respect to their surroundings. In Natives’ culture, there is no such thing of I am first because I am this because they are all relying on one another to sustain life. According to the Digital History, Native American lifestyle was “ free from all the traditional constraints of civilized life-- such as private property or family bonds” . The natives had never of a thought of themselves as owners. They believed that everything on earth was gifted by the Mother Earth, which explains why Indians have a great respect for nature. This concept has proven to us that these Native American were not self- centered. They don’t take everything for granted. They appreciated every little thing around

The Native American’s way of living was different from the Europeans. They believed that man is ruled by respect and reverence for nature and that nature is an

In American Indian life, they believe their life is interconnected with the world, nature, and other people. The idea of a peoplehood matrix runs deep in Indian culture, in this essay the Cherokee, which is the holistic view of sacred history, language, ceremony, and homeland together. This holistic model shapes the life of the American Indians and how their sense of being and relationship to their history is strong and extremely valuable to them. This essay will try to explain how each aspect of the peoplehood matrix is important and interconnected to each other and the life of the Native Americans.

For years, the Native Americans lived a very solitary life with their own unique way of living, that was until the European’s showed up with their very complex way of living. Harmony with nature was a very important aspect of Native American culture. The Native people embraced nature with no intention to modify it unlike the Europeans. They simply cared more about nature and what it had to offer. The spiritual connection between the land and these Natives were distinctive from the Europeans also due to the fact that to the settlers, land meant wealth. As a European, if you owned any land you were considered a wealthy upper class human being. As a Native, no one owned the land and anyone could benefit from the land.

Prior to European influences, many indigenous religions did not dichotomize the world into good and evil, and, as a result, natives interpreted their deities as both good and bad. When the town council describes their indigenous beliefs as “wicked,” this diction represents how European influences affected and shifted how natives interpretation of nature.

“One general truth that threads throughout the Native American spiritual beliefs is the belief of the Mother Earth spirituality” (Coll). They often called earth their mother and called father the air. The earth to the Natives is very sacred to them and is the most important thing to them. Most of the ceremonies were in some way revolving around the earth and they called earth “home.” Most of the ceremonies were practiced for many years and were passed down through generation to generation. The Native Americans didn’t have a book like the bible or any language that was written. One big thing they had was Totems. These were everywhere in their tribes and it was supposed to represent people and the animals that represented them. The Indians were supposed to have 7 spiritual animals and the many animals on the totems were supposed to represent all the person’s spiritual

They used what is known as a diffused substinance pattern. By this we mean that by using resources available to them lightly as opposed to intensely using the same resources, they were conserving for the future. These tribes would spiritualize nature. In this culture everything was significant. They held reverence for the environment and a strong kinship with nature. Often these people observed respectful guidelines to avoid spiritual retaliation. For instance, the bones of the beaver would be returned to the river where it had been trapped. This was believed to keep the beavers there plentiful.

There are three key patterns seen in most Native American religions they are the human relationship with nature, framing of time and space and respect for gods/ancestors. The human relationship with nature known as animism, everything is seen as part of the same reality and every object has a spirt, is a practice where there is little distinction between humans and animals. Time and space is sacred, cyclical,

In Eastern Algonquian religion they believed that there was a spiritual world that interacted constantly with the physical world.

Ceremonies and rituals are critical to the Native American culture. This culture also considers these rituals as a part of their religion. When referring to religion it’s not the same as the way

Calvinists also believed that “men were directed to transform the earth according to the divine will of God” (Champagne 1992:15); therefore, men were given complete freedom for environmental domination in order to transform this world that is full of flaws and sins and to appease God. From this perspective, nature is an object to be struggled against and overcome. Furthermore, Christianity, more specifically Calvinist belief, teaches the radical dualism of sacred and profane. From this perspective, this world characterized by sins, flaws, and suffering is profane, drawing comparison a comparison to the sacred afterworld. Native Americans, on the other hand, had less tension in this dichotomous relationship between this-worldliness and otherworldliness. Most Native cultures believed that their institutional and cultural elements, such as ceremonies, kinship, villages, and clans were given as gifts by the “Great Spirit”-- a benevolent and ubiquitous life force of the world. The Great Spirit communicates with humans through intermediaries that reside in nature, which makes Native Americans to live harmoniously with the earth. Everything on earth is considered a spiritual being that needs to be respected to keep the world in balance.

Key aspects of Indigenous knowledge include: monism, holism, relations, reciprocity, and inner/outer space (Frideres). The monist aspect of Indigenous ways of knowing suggests that there is no division between mind and matter. All animate and inanimate things have life spirit, and hence hold knowledge. Indigenous knowledge is holistic as it identifies cultural context as a central influence on knowledge. In this way, Indigenous ways of knowing are subjective. Relationships between all things on earth are a key component of Indigenous thought. This ties into the principle of reciprocity, which highlights the importance of actions and reactions between all things. Indigenous peoples believe they are not only in a reciprocal relationship with living and non-living things, but that they are responsible to them. When one comes about a certain piece of knowledge, one is transformed by it and therefore have a responsibility to act in light of that knowledge and share it in a conscientious manner. Finally, Indigenous knowledge is situated in the ‘inner space,’ as it is inherently colored by the reality that exists in each individual. Reality is bound by cultural and social contexts. In this way, Indigenous knowledge recognizes a multitude of realities that are interconnected