The Coexistence Doctrine, part 1
Thoughts on “How the Native American Thinks”
About a week ago I dove into for this month’s theme for AllCreation.org: Indigenous spirituality in Nature. Based on very limited research I would say perhaps the most common fundamental in the Native American worldview is the idea of humility towards nature, always, always expressed from a place of higher intelligence.
To me, this quote summarizes the basis of the North American Indigenous worldview:
“This is the probably most important part (about how the Native American thinks).
Some people, or some body, realized that everything out there would thrive and survive without them,
but they could not exist without it.
And so they would humble themselves before that natural world.”
In other words, the Native American perspective is fundamentally egalitarian towards Nature because humans are the least important part of the living system surrounding us.
This perspective is the opposite of the way most Westerners think. We are the least important part of the miracle of life? Humans could disappear entirely from the Earth and all of the rest of the living things around us would not just continue, but thrive? Nothing relies on us? Nothing?
It’s true. We are the dependents. Current scientific theory confirms the idea that human beings are a very recent addition to the speciation of life on Earth:
And while it’s little appreciated, fact is it’s biodiversity productivity that sustains us. Our planet’s oxygen, temperature, precipitation cycles, food supply and more are all heavily determined not by us, but by other living things: soils, plants, insects, animals, and microbial life.
Where does oxygen come from? Other life forms. (Fifty percent of all oxygen is made by plankton, the rest by trees and vegetation.) Earth’s biggest heat sinks are its living oceans and tropical forests. Oceans and forests also act as water wicks, exchanging water vapors and directing precipitation across continents and around the world. We can make jeans and computers, but we can’t manufacture crops or a temperate climate.
Climate scientists fear global warming will cause drastic reduction in our planet’s overall biodiversity and that those losses will eviscerate our climate’s ability to stay temperate. The truth is biodiversity collapse is already in crisis, humanity is threatened, and there are an infinite number of negatives to fear. But these can be rapidly reversed by focusing on three restorative actions:
I. Protect and Restore the Earth’s Most Biodiverse Ecosystems
II. Solve the World’s Food and Poverty Challenges with Permaculture
III. Install Biodiversity Resilience Buffers In and Around the Places People Live
Visit my project BioIntegrity.net to learn more about the most affordable, globally beneficial solutions you can support today. We have a bunch of $5 solutions. Tomorrow I’ll post a collection of videos on The Coexistence Doctrine of Native Americans.
