The Value of Indian Culture

Earlier I mentioned that there is a fundamental difference between the

way Indians and non-Indians experience the world. This difference goes

all the way back to the bible, and Genesis.

In Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament, God creates man in

his own image. Then God says, “be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth

and conquer it. Be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of the

heaven, and all living animals on the earth.”

Masters. Conquer. Nothing, nothing could be further from the way

Indian people view the world and our place in it. Here are the words

of the great nineteenth century Chief Seattle: “You are a part of the

earth, and the earth is a part of you. You did not weave the web of

life, you are merely a strand in it. Whatever you do to the web, you

do to yourself.”

In our tradition, there is no mastery. There is no conquering.

Instead, there is kinship among all creation-humans, animals, birds,

plants, even rocks. We are all part of the sacred hoop of the world,

and we must all live in harmony with each other if that hoop is to

remain unbroken.

When you begin to see the world this way - through Indian eyes - you

will begin to understand our view of land, and treaties, very

differently. You will begin to understand that when we speak of Father

Sun and Mother Earth, these are not new-age catchwords - they are very

real terms of respect for very real beings.