American Indian Environmental Philosophies

When Columbus arrived in North America in 1492, he brought with him a specific European attitude toward nature. Over the next four hundred years, these views mixed somewhat with those of the native peoples, and evolved as factors such as technology, war, and scarcity of land constantly changed man's relationship with his environment. From the beginning, Americans' relationship with their environment has been plagued with conflicting interests and bizarre dichotomies.

The Pueblos' creation myth, similar to those of other Native Americans, is an excellent starting point for an examination of their views of nature. As Ramon Gutierrez points out in his essay Pueblos and Spanish in the Southwest, these early inhabitants of America thought that all life originated from a human-like Goddess named Tsichtinako (Thought Woman) and her lover Uchtsiti. Mankind is subsequently created along with the other “katsina” who must live in harmony with the season spirits. Gutierrez is quick to describe how the myth “likened human life to plant life… Like a sprouting maize shoot rooted in the earth or a child coming forth from its mother's womb, so the Pueblo Indians described their emergence from the underworld.” (Merchant, 46)

In this tradition, the native cultures all across the Americas were permeated with an emphasis on balance and the rules of reciprocity in gifting. In other words, a gift must always be repaid with a countergift. For this reason, the Pueblos usually put meal in the mouths of game they killed, and offered sacrifices to the river before fishing. They viewed the land itself as a living organism, and the animals that inhabited it were of nearly equal importance to humans. Thus, the concept of personal property was entirely foreign. This tradition, combined with relatively slow technological advancement, allowed Native Americans to live in an astonishingly bounteous harmony with nature for thousands of years.

The Christian creation myth, however, finds mankind in a markedly different situation. Like the Native Americans, Christians believe that humans were created from the earth by an omnipotent force, but unlike the Natives, they constantly find themselves in a struggle with the elements. Indeed, paradise is depicted as a “garden,” (Genesis, 3:8) from which mankind is rejected after a catastrophic blunder. Forced to eternally battle the untamed wilds, humans must now struggle to elicit food from the relatively barren soil and maintain our “dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth.” (Genesis 1:26)

These views are reflected by the writings of colonial settlers like William Bradford, who referred to the region—in 1620—as “a hideous and desolate wilderness, full of wild beasts and wild men.” (Merchant 68) Nine years later, John Winthrop made an argument for colonization by citing God's command (in Genesis 1:28) to “Increase and multiply, replenish the earth and subdue it.” (Merchant 72)

Of course, the aforementioned desire to “subdue” nature is paralleled by an American sense of awe at its beauty. The latter half of this strange duality was ...