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I sat on a raft being carried swiftly down the Rio Grande. My guide, Alan, began telling
his story. He had been out hunting elk with his father, using a bow and arrow. His father, though
less skilled with the bow than Alan, had shot the elk, and it lay dying. Out of respect for the
animal, they waited until sundown to see if the elk would survive. As they hid among the brush,
the sun grew dimmer. Finally, the hunters had to consider going home. Suddenly, a hummingbird
flew down, and after looking both Alan and his father in their faces, perched on Alans shoulder.
It was a sign. They shot the elk, brought it home, fed their family with it, and put the other parts
to good use. After telling the story, Alan pulled down his shirt to reveal a tattoo of a
hummingbird on his shoulder to us. Native American interaction with the environment differs
greatly from Non-Native interaction with the environment, both in the past and in the present
day. From these differences, political, societal, and economic trends have emerged.
the very beginning of the relationship between Non-Natives and Natives. Conflicting views on
land ownership caused relations with Natives to sour quickly. Prior to the arrival of European
settlers, Native Americans had viewed the land as something that could not be owned, as its own
entity. However, as holistic as these beliefs are, they made it easy for colonists to take Native
land for next to nothing. In Paul Chaat Smith and Robert Allen Warriors novel, Like a
Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee, they discuss that present-day
Native Americans still feel the injustice over having their homelands taken from them through
trickery and violence, and how these feelings manifested into a nation-wide protest. Differing
views over land-ownership has been the primary divide between Natives and Non-Natives since
the 1500s.
Not only did differences in environmental interaction between Natives and Non-Natives
result in political trends that remain in our country to this day, but they also affected the way that
Non-Native and Native societies grew, and how they merged. While in New Mexico, I noticed
that the communities there were very different than my community in Austin, Texas, and were
truly different than any community Id seen throughout my time in this world. In New Mexico,
the societies were more tightly knit. Every building and house looked similar, a state uniformed
in shades of beige. The cities did not sprawl, and they werent filled with unnecessary parking
lots and strip malls. Those who built the cities of New Mexico integrated them into the
surrounding landscape, as opposed to changing their surroundings to fit the cities. This is due to
strong Native American influences on the culture of New Mexico. Santa Fe is a community built
around art, and the vast majority of that art is inspired by the environment, created either by
Native Americans or by those inspired by them. Native societies are far tighter knit than Non-
Native societies, and not only due to their small size. Its simply because they live in a far more
natural way, and are more in tune with their environment. Native Americans understand the true
value of land -and not monetary value- both because it is in their religions, and because its been
Thirdly, the difference in Natives interaction with the environment and Non-Natives
interaction created economic trends. Non-Natives overtook far more land in North America than
was needed, despite the rapidly growing population. Families were awarded free acres of land
simply for moving here. This Westward expansion, caused by greed, was what ultimately
displaced Native Americans and resulted in the creation of reservations. Colonists were quick to
take advantage of and use up the plentiful resources they found in the Americas, while Native
Americans had coexisted with the environment peacefully for centuries, taking and using only
what they needed. Native American tribes used methods of agriculture that allowed for
coexistence with the natural environment, rather than claiming giant plots of land and attempting
to uniformly grow a single crop. Settlers began growing cash crops in the South, logging,
fishing, shipbuilding, and fur trapping in the North. The West offered settlers tantalizing visions
of even greater wealth- who knew what riches were yet to be discovered beyond the Great
Frontier. Manifest Destiny led to railroads, which led to factories and the Industrial Revolution,
and capitalism and materialism began to mold the U.S. economy. The concept of land being
preserved simply for human enjoyment, rather than economic gain did not enter the U.S.
government until Roosevelt became president. Until that point land was seen simply as a
resource, a way to generate revenue. Even now, many corporations attempt to sidestep
environmental regulations in order to make a greater profit, at the cost of hurting the
environment.
Native Americans learned to cooperate with the environment, rather than alter it to fit
their needs. On my Light Side Dark Side Project, I painted a quote from Chief Seattle in which
he states, humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever
we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. On this
trip, I truly saw the difference in Natives interaction with the environment and Non-Natives.
They respect the land, and for one of the first times in my life, I saw truly wild, uninhabited,
seemingly untouched spaces. Hearing about the respect that my Rio Grande guide Alan had for
each animal that he hunted was amazing. Here in Texas, many people hunt, but not out of a
respect or a sense of interconnectedness with the land, but for sport, for nothing but a game.
When we visited the Acoma Pueblo, we met people living there with no running water or
energy, but a strong sense of community and a respect for their environment. They built their
homes on top of a plateau, a mind boggling concept for me, a person who has dwelled only in
cities built upon convenience. At one point, someone asked Steven, our Acoma guide, how his
people had persevered and preserved their culture, religion, and way of life, despite the Spanish
and every other hardship theyd faced. He answered simply, that some things are too precious to
lose. This is what stuck with me. Non-Native settlers did not view the land as precious, as
Native Americans did. Rather, they saw the land as expendable, as something that was meant to
serve their purposes and nothing more. In conclusion, Native American interaction with the
environment differs greatly from Non-Native interaction with the environment, and that
difference causes political conflict, weakened Non-Native societies, and a fierce, greed-based
economic climate.