1.4.9 The Land
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1.4.9 Relationship to the Land
Does globalization threaten or enrich your identity?
First Nations people believe they are connected to all things related to the land. Traditionally, they were dependent on the land and all that existed on it. They believe their existence is of equal importance to the existence of plants and animals. The land must be treated with respect so it can sustain those who live upon it.
They do not believe, as many members of our dominant culture believe, that the land and all the plants, minerals, and animals on it exist just for human use. They believe that everything outside themselves is one of their relatives.
The following is from Wallace Black Elk, a Lakota Indian from North Dakota:
Take care of the land and it will take care of you. In the human family, members care for each other and take care of one another. When we need help, most of us ask our family first. We know our family will help us because that is what we expect. Other family members assume they can ask us for our help and we will gladly give it. The Aboriginal relationship to the land is like the relationship between family members. If we respect and care for the land, it will take care of us.
They do not believe, as many members of our dominant culture believe, that the land and all the plants, minerals, and animals on it exist just for human use. They believe that everything outside themselves is one of their relatives.
The following is from Wallace Black Elk, a Lakota Indian from North Dakota:
The Winds are your relatives. Pray to them. Talk to them. They are your relatives.
Take care of the land and it will take care of you. In the human family, members care for each other and take care of one another. When we need help, most of us ask our family first. We know our family will help us because that is what we expect. Other family members assume they can ask us for our help and we will gladly give it. The Aboriginal relationship to the land is like the relationship between family members. If we respect and care for the land, it will take care of us.
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Relationship to land, spirituality, and identity: For most First Nations people, a relationship to the land is very important to identity. When the First Nations tribes lived in harmony with nature, they believed that each tribe was given by the Creator a certain part of the earth to live on and care for, and they developed ways to survive by acting as caretakers of their environment. The Plains Indians were nomads, following the buffalo. Coastal tribes set up villages where they could catch fish. The Iroquois developed agricultural techniques because of the excellent soil and climate in their regions. Certain areas of the land were respected for healing medicines or as ancestral burial grounds. As farming, industry, urbanization, logging, oil production, and mining changed the natural landscape, the identity of First Nations people was threatened. The ties that First Nations people have to the land are part of their spiritual beliefs, and when these are taken away, an essential part of their identity is lost.
Other perspectives: Some groups believe in communal land ownership. The land is owned and used by the group for their mutual benefit; they do not own property individually. For example, the Hutterite colonies in Canada operate under this belief. Other groups live in communities, sharing much but owning their land individually. Many religious groups immigrated to Canada partly because they were not allowed to practise communal land ownership in their own countries.
Ranchers and farmers have close ties to the land. As more family farms disappear through selling to large corporations, the way of life of ranchers and farmers changes or disappears. Ranchers and farmers face the threat of urban growth taking their traditional ranch and farm land - which they may sell for much money.
Global forces threaten everyone with close ties to the land. A farm child who is forced to move to the city or a ranch child who must leave his home are victims of global forces that threaten their ways of life.
What does globalization have to do with your relationship to the land? How can it threaten or enrich your identity? If you and members of your group cannot live your traditional ways of life, can you celebrate your culture? If you cannot live on your traditional family farm because a big corporation buys your land, what happens to your your way of life? If your ranch land disappears when a city grows larger, what happens to your identity? If you love to go into the wilderness to ski, hike, or snowmobile, and the forests are vanishing through logging or oil patch activity, do you lose any important part of your identity?
We are telling you again and again that, without the land, Indian people have no soul, no life, no identity, no purpose . . . we are people of the land. The land is for our children, not for our sale. The land is part of us and we are part of it.
Other perspectives: Some groups believe in communal land ownership. The land is owned and used by the group for their mutual benefit; they do not own property individually. For example, the Hutterite colonies in Canada operate under this belief. Other groups live in communities, sharing much but owning their land individually. Many religious groups immigrated to Canada partly because they were not allowed to practise communal land ownership in their own countries.
Ranchers and farmers have close ties to the land. As more family farms disappear through selling to large corporations, the way of life of ranchers and farmers changes or disappears. Ranchers and farmers face the threat of urban growth taking their traditional ranch and farm land - which they may sell for much money.
Global forces threaten everyone with close ties to the land. A farm child who is forced to move to the city or a ranch child who must leave his home are victims of global forces that threaten their ways of life.
Reflect
What does globalization have to do with your relationship to the land? How can it threaten or enrich your identity? If you and members of your group cannot live your traditional ways of life, can you celebrate your culture? If you cannot live on your traditional family farm because a big corporation buys your land, what happens to your your way of life? If your ranch land disappears when a city grows larger, what happens to your identity? If you love to go into the wilderness to ski, hike, or snowmobile, and the forests are vanishing through logging or oil patch activity, do you lose any important part of your identity?