Nature and spirit

Many Aboriginal traditions maintain that nature and spirit are inseparable and interconnected, and that spirits reside in everything and that everything is part of nature. This system is centered on the earth. Most indigenous peoples worship it as the source of the endless cycle of generation, destruction and regeneration that they believe controls everything. The concept of Mother Earth, shared by the Indians, reflects the idea of the earth as a powerful nutritious force, although there is intense debate among scholars to determine whether this image is prior to contact with the whites or is simply a European interpretation.

The idea that the earth would receive human beings is present in many native stories. According to many traditions, humanity has a spiritual origin in the earth, which gave it life in the same way that the soil gives rise to plants. However, peoples do not consider themselves superior to other living or inanimate creatures. All living beings must be responsible and share the earth equally.

This attitude goes against the Judeo-Christian tradition introduced by the missionaries, which claims that God granted mankind the dominion of the earth and of all living beings. Animals are highly revered in Aboriginal traditions, and some peoples believe that they are the creators of the world. For many, the Creator was the “dive of the earth,” a turtle or other small animal that extracted clay from the early depths and shaped the Earth from this material. According to a duck tale, Old Coyote made the ground by blowing a small piece of clay that the ducks carried from the bottom of the waters. According to ancestral beliefs, animals have spirit, just like humans, and have a complex mutually beneficial relationship with people, plants, and the earth. Animals are often crucial in teaching humans how to behave. Timers, who often present themselves in the form of animals, transmit important moral lessons to their human neighbours.

The deep respect that each people shows for its region is at the heart of every indigenous culture. The landscape is not only a source of strength and identity, it is also sacred. According to Alfonso Ortiz, a tewa anthropologist, his grandmother advised him that when he felt away from his soul, he should return home, as the four sacred mountains that define the borders of the tewa world would renew him spiritually.