Indigenous worldviews are rich and diverse. Unfortunately, due to policies designed to obliterate Indigenous languages and cultural and spiritual practices, they have not been easily accessible to the public.
This curriculum project is intended to change that. It presents seven lessons highlighting how Indigenous wisdom can help us move forward as a collective Earth community.
Wisdom
Indigenous peoples have centuries of experience with the natural world. Their knowledge and wisdom about the environment is invaluable to our global community.
While Western society has eroded many of their beliefs and traditions, Native American practices are resilient and offer valuable lessons for sustainable living. They teach us to respect the temple of nature, honor the power of silence and the Great Mystery, and ascribe value to all life.
These teachings are rooted in family intimacy with the land, which enables a deeper understanding of the ebb and flow of natural resources. They do not focus on doctrinal truths and instead emphasize good-hearted participation in rituals and the everyday work of the community. They also cultivate their verbal language and cosmologies through powerful narratives.
Holistic Perspective
While Western culture has eroded traditional values, many Indigenous peoples have preserved their traditions. One of the most important ways they have done so is through oral storytelling.
Stories connect people to a shared history, teach life lessons and promote spirituality. Unlike Western culture, where people often feel isolated by their busy lives, when finding Native American ancestry, Native cultures celebrate the importance of family and community.
They also value understanding the natural world and seeing ourselves as part of it. This is evident when Native people view plants, animals, and nature as sacred. In addition, they believe that everything in creation carries and embodies revelation. Embracing kin relationality with all living and nonliving things fosters gratitude, humility, awe, and responsibility.
Compassion
Indigenous cultures worldwide have developed compassion for humans and other living things. This is one reason it’s vital to preserve their values, knowledge, and narrative traditions.
The way a tribe cares for its elders is an excellent example of this. For instance, in many Native American cultures, children and young adults serve their elders at meals and never walk ahead of them. This respect and honoring of age is considered a sign of wisdom.
In a society where economic pressures often make it impossible to devote time to religious practices, we must take the time to learn more about Indigenous traditions. They offer a path of spirituality and compassion for all living things that can help heal our wounded planet.
Responsibility
A vital aspect of the Native worldview is responsibility. This includes a sense of how one’s actions affect others and nature. It also means respecting elders and following the traditions of one’s community.
This translates into a strong sense of stewardship that can be seen in how they care for the land, treat animals with kindness and respect, and preserve traditional stories and ceremonies. It is also reflected in how family members care for each other and their children and how communities work together to ensure everyone has what they need.
Students need to learn about this aspect of Native culture. This can be done age-appropriate so that the concept of responsibility is understood as a continuum rather than a binary.
Stewardship
Many Native American traditions encourage environmental stewardship through their teachings, practices, and values. They believe that all living things are interconnected and that we are responsible for protecting the Earth.
Among the most sacred beliefs for Native Americans is that death marks the end of life on Earth and the beginning of a new journey into the spirit world. They honor the deceased by performing various rituals to help them on their journey. Elders are honored by being served first at meals, and children are taught to respect their elders.
Many Native Americans also practice a spiritual rite known as a vision quest, a period of sensory deprivation during which a person searches for a guardian spirit to interact with and seek guidance. Vision quests vary significantly in their length and intensity from tribe to tribe.
Community
Among many other lessons, this experience underscored the importance of community. The community enables individuals to connect with nature, other people, and their spirits. These connections help them navigate life’s challenges and celebrate the good times.
In many Native American traditions, spirituality is an integral part of daily life — an essential aspect of their worldview. They see plants and animals, clouds and mountains, as beings with souls who carry wisdom and offer guidance.
Similarly, the community is the core of many Native American traditions. How they define community ranges from sharing to locus, joint action, and social ties. Each of these definitions is important to the overall concept of community. Sadly, these concepts are often overlooked in the modern world.
Ecological Belonging
To a world dominated by material values and secularism, Indigenous ways of being can appear backward, simple, or even primitive. But indigenous language, practices, values, ancestral lineages, and spiritual identities hold critical information that can help us rebalance our cultural and environmental health.
Indigenous wisdom also holds that all living things are connected and that the Earth is a sacred, inter-subjective kin relational system. A growing number of anthropologists and New Age practitioners recognize and practice this, but many still need to do so, or only superficially. Imagine a global practice of acknowledging traditional lands wherever you are–in classrooms, conference settings, cultural venues, and beyond. This would be a decisive first step toward healing our ailing planet. It would remind people that we all belong here together.
