American Indian Philosophy offers Great Wisdom to modern human beings. It spotlights how we treat God’s Creation, our Mother Earth, and how we treat each other.
The common sense example of Native Americans is that they treated the environment in the greatest way possible, recognizing that we draw our lives from this planet—it is foolish not to take care of it, just as it is foolish not to take care of our own body. To American Indians every tree and stone was alive, and Mother Earth was a living entity in need of respect and protection—never to be abused or misused.
To take care of this planet, to have generosity rather than greed, plus respect for our brothers and sisters on this planet, with a worshipful life-style, and (not a Sunday only religion), that is the soul and core of American Indian beliefs.
"I could see that the Wasichus (whites) did not care for each other the way our people did before the nation’s hoop was broken.
They would take everything from each other if they could, and so there were some who had more of everything than they could use, while crowds of people had nothing at all and maybe were starving. They had forgotten that the earth was their mother. This could not be better than the old ways of my people.
These ancestral heroes are responsible for life itself; life that arose in a time when all the natural species, the land and humans, were part of the same ongoing life force. They had powers to turn themselves into geographic or natural features, they descended into the ground and reappeared as a species of bird or animal, or as a waterhole, or they ascended into the sky and became constellations. As they moved around they created all the species, humans, the landscape and all the features of it, then they tended to settle down and remain as a feature of the landscape.
Stories, songs and ceremonies recreate Dreaming, explain the laws left for the people by the supreme beings and fulfill sacred obligations to kin, the species and the landscape. The conceptual framework of this philosophy is expressed through ceremonies that include:
Increase ceremonies - expressing human ties and responsibilities to land;
It is important to note that the core of Aboriginal philosophy and religious practice is subject to secrecy and knowledge on a "need-to-know" basis. Within Aboriginal society people are chosen as the eventual repositories of such knowledge, often over many years of proving their worth.