Category Archives: Indigenous Religion and Philosophy

Whapmagoostui (Cree Territory): Respect for Life

2024 Trip to Eastern Canada, Indigenous Religion and Philosophy

 

in the series “Telling Our Stories”, Saige Mukash said there are so many things that are spiritual—such as waking up and greeting the sun. To Matthew Mukash goose hunting is part of their spiritual tradition and they understand that if you are part of this culture, the goose will protect you. The goose brings food and medicine and also “a reminder that mother earth provides whatever it is that we need.” As a result, the people must respect the goose. Even though they hunt goose and eat goose, they must respect the goose. This is part of their culture and their spirituality. Respect for all species.

 

Danielle O’Bomsawin-Mukash, an Abenaki from Odanak, said  she eats a salad and it was alive. And she eats it. Obviously, she is not a vegan since she eats goose, but all of us eat things that are alive.  “We believe that everything has a spirit. It means showing as much respect as you can,” she said, as she was removing the feathers from a goose. Respect is a fundamental concept in many Indigenous cultures.

 

Matthew Mukash said the job of an old man is to keep the meat turning above the fire. He does that while sitting comfortably on a chair in his wooden shelter. And just like old men in the white territories his grandchildren giggle as he talks. He prays to the ancestors as he gets the food ready to eat.

 

These are their ceremonies. They reminded me of Catholic Ceremonies. Many religious groups have ceremonies. I remember as a good Mennonite boy the first time I was in a Catholic church in the little town of LaBroquerie, I was surprised at the strange ceremonies they had. Priests in fine robes handing out the body and blood of Christ. Not really that different. Matthew Mukash said, in their culture old people were present when the food was cooked and they shared their stories.

Waskamatsiwin: Everything Alive is Sacred

2024 Trip to Eastern Canada, Indigenous Religion and Philosophy

 

Waskamatsiwin–Everything that’s alive is sacred. As Eruoma Awashish, an Atikamekw from Opitciwan, another Indigenous group in Eastern Canada, said in the CBC Gem series, “Telling Our Stories”,

 

“Waskamatsiwin is a philosophical concept. It could be translated as to live in full consciousness within the harmony of the Circle. For me the word expresses our entire worldview, how we see ourselves in relation to the world. How we interact with the world. We aren’t in the centre of this circle. We are within it.”

 

This is very different from the spiritual colonialism of Europeans and Canadians. They don’t claim to be dominant or in the centre. It is enough to be part of the world of nature.

 

Steve McComber, Kanien’kehà:ka from Kahnawake said

 

“spirituality is the application of ritual, song, dance, people, laughing, singing, and being happy for what our Creator gave to us.”

 

Saige Mukash, Eeyou from Whapmagoostui, added

 

“Spirituality would be us communicating with the spirit world. Communication with ceremonies, and also an understanding of where we all fit into the Circle.”

 

Another woman said,

 

“Bears play an essential role in our spirituality. It is also said that they speak the language of men. The bear is our equal. Our brother. Our protector. Many nations also respectfully call them Nimisho, my grandfather. Like all living and non-living beings the bear is a part of our circular world-view.”

It was interesting for me to consider Indigenous spirituality as we drove through eastern Canada

Mi’kmaq Religion and Spirituality

2024 Trip to Eastern Canada, Indigenous Religion and Philosophy

 

 

Mi’kmaq spirituality, like so much of various First Nations’ spirituality,  is deeply  influenced by and closely connected to the natural world. In fact, that connection to the natural world is the fundamental basis of their spirituality. The Mi’kmaq believe that living a good, balanced life means respecting and protecting the environment and living in harmony with the people and creatures that live on the earth.

 

Mi’kmaq culture and traditional religion is based on legendary figures like Glooscap who is said to have created the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia where we travelled by sleeping on the land and using the island of what we now call Prince Edward Island as a pillow. The Great Spirit is the creator of the world and all its creatures and they never lost that spirituality when Eastern Canada, as we now call it was not lost when Catholic priests and settlers arrived and often did their level best to destroy everything in their spirituality. Of course, the ideas of Creator and God are very similar.  Christians though often resist the similarities. They want to be different, because they expect to be superior. Sometimes the new adherents to the new religion managed to nearly wipe out the ancient spirituality of the so-called new world. Often it kept bubbling up again, sometimes in hybridized ways.

 

The spirituality of the Mi’kmaq people is often communicated by stories. Not really unlike the Christian stories told in the Bible. One of the Mi’kmaq origin stories told about how the world was created in 7 stage including the sky, the sun, Mother Earth and humans. I’m not sure who or what fell into the remaining stages. There are many other origin stories that describe how things came to be and how to live a good life.

As Olive Patricia Dickason and William Newbigging, explained in their book A Concise History of Canada First Nation, among the Mi’kmaq, a chief could attract followers, but the people were not subordinated to their leader’s will, except perhaps in time of war or emergencies. Even in warfare however, among many groups each individual was essentially his or her own leader. Perhaps most important of all, chiefs were expected to set an example for their people, in particular by being generous. Instead of gaining wealth through their positions, they could end up the poorest of the group because of the continual demands made upon their resources. This also happened among First Nations on the west coast as well, particularly during a Potlach.

Clearly a leader like Donald Trump would have had no interest in being a leader under such circumstances. He would not have been viewed as leadership material. I keep asking this question: who is civilized again?  Tell me again why I should think Europeans were less savage, more civilized, or more superior! It makes no sense to me.

Spiritual Colonialism

2024 Trip to Eastern Canada, Indigenous Religion and Philosophy

 

As we were driving through eastern Canada on this trip, I kept thinking about the original human inhabitants of this wonderful country. The Indigenous people of what we now call Eastern Canada. I kept thinking about a television series I saw on CBC Gem, called Telling Our Story. 

For over 500 years the lives of the people who occupied Eastern Canada, particularly in what we now call Quebec, were disrupted, but they survived. As the narrator of The CBC series Telling Our Story said, “History with a capital “H” was told from a single point of view, but those days are over.” Thank goodness for that. The European/Canadian point of view has been dominant too long. It’s time for a fresh look.

I know some of my friends are tired of hearing indigenous stories. They’ve heard enough they say. But those stories from an indigenous perspective are only very recently been available to us. The story of white settlers have been around for hundreds of years while the indigenous stories were not listened to. I think it is time for a change and we can hear these stories for a few years more.

Spiritual colonialism of Indigenous people was as disruptive as the political kind. Until deep into the 20th century and even beyond, Canada has tried to impose its religion on the Indigenous People of North America.  The indigenous people of Eastern Canada want to speak out and tell their story. This time, we really should listen to it. We could learn something.

As one of the Indigenous artists said on the show, “People don’t even know us.”  That is true. What a pity.

So, I am trying to tell their story to my friends. I am not appropriating their story. But as Niigaan Sinclair once told me what I could do to assist reconciliation, was to talk to my friends. So that is what I do. Many of them, no doubt, are sick of hearing me. But as Sinclair said, “they won’t listen to me, but maybe a few will listen to you.” Probably not very many but I think he has a point.

As one of the young Indigenous girls on the series said, “spirituality for me is a sense of connection to the land which makes me feel whole.”  I think I could stop right there. She summed it up. And amazingly, these words echoed ancient words of a culture from the other side of the world, India. The word “religion” is derived from an ancient Indo-European word religio, which means connection or linkage.  And that is what she was saying. It is a powerful message. It doesn’t need any supernatural beings either. Though it does not deny the possibility of the supernatural. Religion is about connection. The connection of people to each other and to the land.

Another man on the show, much older, said, “spirituality is totally different from religion.” I think he meant religion of the western colonial kind. There is another way and we can learn from it. This is not a call for anyone to abandon their own spirituality or religion. It is merely a call to open eyes.

As Alexandre Bacon, an Innu from Mashteuiatsh, said,

 “If you read the Book of Genesis it says that God created man to rule over everything that flies, that crawls, that swims. Man stands above all other animals. He is meant to dominate nature, to control it. Whereas from an Indigenous point of standpoint, we are an integral part of nature. There is no hierarchy. The bear is our brother, the moose is our brother. And when an animal  gives its life it deserves our gratitude.”

 

 

No part of the land rules any other part.  Humans are not put on this earth to rule it. They are put on earth to be a part of it. That is the indigenous perspective.  Not the indigenous perspective. One of perspectives.

Mi’Kmaq: A foundational disagreement

2024 Trip to Eastern Canada, Indigenous People After Contact, Indigenous Religion and Philosophy

 

Chief Donnacona was the Iroquois Chief of the village of Stadacona when Jacques Cartier arrived on his second trip to Canada as it is now called. It was located at the site of what became Quebec City, which Christiane and I passed by on our way to the east coast of Canada on our own personal voyage of discovery in 2024.

In 1536 Cartier arrived a little deeper into Canada.  He arrived with a ship and landed in Île d’ Orléans, an island in what we now call Quebec. 11 of his men were very sick. They were basically dying of scurvy.

While Cartier and his men were in Canada, Chief Donnacona and his people prepared  tea for the Frenchmen who had landed on their shores from the leaves of 2 conifers that were rich in vitamins. That cured the men and they survived.

As so often happened in Canadian history, the First Nations of North America helped these Europeans survive in the Western hemisphere. They helped because that is what they did. They did not ask for payments.  But they did expect that if they were in need some day the newcomers would help them out if they could. Reciprocity was an important value among the First Nations of North America. This is how civilized people act.

Cartier, on the other hand, concluded that second voyage by kidnapping Donnacona along with 9 other Iroquois captives, and brought them all the way to France as curiosities for the people of France to see. That act showed the true meaning of European arrival in the so-called “New World.” That is not how civilized people act.

In the CBC story Telling our Stories, Edna Manitowabi an Anishinabe woman from Wiikwemkoong said, “We helped them. We were kind to them. We were generous and yes we agreed to share. We will share but we didn’t give up. We agreed to share.”

Those words tell us a lot about Indigenous philosophy. It was a profound way of thinking. The actions of Cartier tell us a lot about European philosophy.  Their philosophy embodied “taking” rather than sharing.

According to the doctrine of discovery, initiated by the Roman Catholic Popes, anyone who was not a Christian was a savage. And savages had few rights. And their land could be taken from them.

But I ask, “Who were the savages? And who was civilized?’

However, this fundamental misunderstanding between Indigenous people and the new arrivals from Europe proved very costly. As a result of that misunderstanding, Canada has suffered through decades of discontent by their partners who resented being treated as people who had sold off their inheritance to Canada.  While indigenous people remained unable to successfully assert their rights the newcomers enjoyed nearly a century of apparent quiet possession of Canada, but this fundamental misunderstanding still meant the “root of title” to use a concept of the common law of England which became part of the common law of Canada after Confederation was in doubt.  In time, the Supreme Court of Canada has turned back Canada’s easy assumptions that all of Canada had been ceded to Canada by Indigenous people.

Eventually, the Canadian courts kiboshed this idea. That does not mean the Canadian courts have accepted everything that Indigenous people argued, but it confirmed that Indigenous people had a lot more rights than Canada had believed. The extent of those aboriginal rights which have not been ceded is still being worked out by Canada’s courts and this has made law in Canada such an interesting thing. It is one of the reasons that an old teacher of real estate law in Canada—me—has had so much enjoyment out of practicing law.

What was once certain has become shaky.

 

Creation Stories: The Story of Mesh

Evolution, Indigenous People before Contact, Indigenous Religion and Philosophy

 

First Nations have an abundance of creation stories. Many of them are ancient stories. They have been passed down for thousands of years in the form of oral stories. One of the most famous stories, is the story of Mesh.

Innu are a First Nation in eastern Canada. The Innu are the indigenous people found in much of what we now refer to as Labrador and Quebec. At one time, they were to as the Montagnais-Naskapi Indians. They are not the Inuit (or formerly  ‘Eskimo’) who live further north.

The Innu have a creation story of Mesh (pronounced and often written ‘Mee’ in Innu). That story has passed down orally through many generations.  According to that story, two which  prehistoric fish, one male and one female, came out of the water. Eventually they grew legs which of course were much more useful on land.  Legs are often quite useless in water. This made them look like lizards, and together they climbed a tree. When they came down from the tree their bodies were covered in hair and they could walk like humans today. Some people believe, not entirely without some justification that this story told by Eruoma Awashish/Terre Innu  in the CBC series shows that Indigenous people understood the concept of evolution. Evolution is the story of change caused by organisms adapting to changed circumstances. Like the two fish.

Religious Snobs

2024 Trip to Eastern Canada, Indigenous People before Contact, Indigenous Religion and Philosophy

Jacque Cartier and his men were impressed with this rock. Who could blame them? They were not so impressed with the people. That was white supremacist bias.

The Europeans who arrived in North America were also snobbish about religion. As Barbara Huck said in her book, “Europeans had a remarkable intolerance for other religions and a deep conviction that their particular brand of Christianity was the only true faith.” They were also often reluctant to acknowledge the help they had received from the inhabitants. As Huck explained, “

 

“By 1545, the difficult climate and hatred of the Iroquois (prompted by the barbarous treatment of the very people who had more than once saved French lives, convinced the French to end for a time at least—their first foray into the “new world.””

Of course, as we all know they came back. When they came back to eastern Canada, they were a little smarter. They realized the wealth on this continent was not so much in precious minerals but other treasures. As Huck said,

“When they returned, at the beginning of the 17th century, they were driven by the same motives—a search for glory, souls, and gold—but the gold was now recognized to lie not in glittering metal but in soft lustrous fur. By 1600 the trade in fur, particularly beaver fur for felting, by seasonal fishermen was so lucrative that many visited the coastal shores to fish for fur rather than cod and a succession of noble were petitioning the French crown for the right to participate—or better yet, monopolize—the trade in North America.”

 

But I think even Huck missed the real treasure. The real treasure was to be found in the remarkable people of North America, their astounding knowledge and understanding of the natural world around them, and the deep spiritual truths that knowledge triggered. That to my mind, was the real unappreciated treasure of North America. It is still under appreciated to this day.

Snobbery is hard to overcome. Even when it is irrational.

 

Indigenous People of the East Coast: territory and spirituality

2024 Trip to Eastern Canada, Indigenous People After Contact, Indigenous People before Contact, Indigenous Religion and Philosophy

 

 

In and around Rimouski we began our journey into Indigenous territory in eastern Canada. Before the trip to Eastern Canada started, I had been watching a television series on CBC Gem that I found very informative and interesting.  I came to appreciate, as I did not before, and certainly did not appreciate in 1967 when I traveled to Quebec with my buddies, that there are many interesting stories to tell about Indigenous peoples.   And until recently, they were not able to tell those stories themselves. Thanks to this series at least some of those stories have been told.

This film series begins with an admonishment that the stories of the indigenous people who live in eastern Canada, as it is now called, were not told by them but by others. They want us to hear their stories from themselves. Otherwise, we won’t hear the truth. So you will be hearing these stories second hand, from me, but you can go to the series and get the stories straight from them without my interpretation. I do not want to appropriate their stories, but as Niigaan Sinclair, a professor of Indigenous studies, and an Anishinaabe of Manitoba  once told me, I should consider telling my friends what I know because they are unlikely to listen to him or any other indigenous person. So that is what I am doing. But the key point is these are there stories which I have heard.

This series lets them tell those stories so we can understand who they are. And obviously, they wanted to tell their own stories. We should let them do that. We should not stand in their way.

They have been called, savages, Indians, aboriginal, indigenous, First Nations, First Peoples, native Americans, or native Canadians, but as one Innu man said, if you are not sure what to call them, the best thing to do is ask the person you are talking to what is the name of his or her group and he or she can tell you. Use that name.

The various Indigenous Peoples reflected in this CBC documentary are as follows: Innu, Atikamekw, Naskapi, Inuk, Kanien’kehákka, Abenaki, Wolastoqiyik, Anishinaabe, Wendat, Eeyou, and Mi’Kmaq.

The various territories of those people are called: Nadakina (for Abenaki), Mi’Kma’ki (for Mi’Kmaq), Innu (for Nutshimit) Nionwntsïo (for Wendat), Maliseet (for Wolastoqiyik), Nitaskimant (for Atikamekw), Nunavik (for Inuk), (for Kanien’kehákka), Eeyouistchee (for Eeyou), Wiikwemkoong (for the Anishinabe territory). I hope I got these names right.

As one Indigenous person on the series said, here is a fundamental fact:

 

“To understand who we are you need to understand our special relationship with the land. It is an intimate and powerful bond that we want to keep alive.”

 

As was said by the narrator, “Since the time of our ancestors we have always shared our territories between our different peoples.” That is important too. The Indigenous people were always willing to share. They were never militantly exclusive.

Added to that, the Indigenous people who were interviewed, said, “Our territory is our identity. It is impossible to survive without your territory.” As a rule, Indigenous people have an identity that is tied to the land. The people and the land cannot be severed from each other. I don’t think the rest of us can understand anything about the Indigenous People if we don’t understand this fundamental belief.

 

As Stanley Vollant, an Innu physician eloquently explained,

“My story and that of my nation are written within the territory. They are written with its rivers and the toponomy of its lakes. I am the territory and the territory is me. It is a sacred relationship. For us it’s impossible to be indigenous, Innu, without Nitassinan.”

 

As one indigenous young Wendat man, from Wendake, Brad Gros-Louis.  put it:

“At one time, First Nations people lived solely off of harvests. And the meats for which we hunted and fished. The territory served to feed you and your family. Today, for me, being indigenous means being a champion of nature, speaking in the name of animals, speaking in the name of the forest, being a guardian of the sacred, of the territory. What makes a good hunt, is that the moose you kill, the moose that you harvest, you will care for it as if it is your baby. Its meat is the priority. We use every part of the animal. When I go hunting and harvest an animal, I take the time to thank it, I take the time to treat it with respect, to do things properly. Everything around us is alive. Everything around us deserves respect.”

 

As Joséphine Bacon, an elegant Innu woman, from Pessamit said

“When I say Assi in Innu, I see the earth, but if I envision “Nutshimit” I see a lot mor than that. I see everything: the forest, the lakes, the rivers, moss, lichens, the horizon, and the animals that feed me. We do not own the land because Nutshimit takes care of us. It is where our identity lies, where our soul lies.”

 

I have heard others, like Chief Seattle say, “we do not own the land, the land owns us.”

 

Charles Api Bellefleur an Innu from Unamen-shipu said this:

 “the forest ensures our well-being. Look at how beautiful it is [he was standing in Innu territory]. It feels good to be here. I know the name of every tree, birch, aspen, white spruce. I know the legends of this land, the stories which have enfolded here, this is where I feel alive. Its where I still live today.”

 

 

As Matthew Mukash, Eeyou (Cree) from Whapmagoostui, said,

“Every valley, every part of the winding river has a name Every mountain, every hill, every hill has a name here, and those names are for reminding us how our ancestors survived so that we can have life today. The land tells the story of your ancestors.”

 

The connection between the land an ancestors is also considered sacred.

Fundamental Misunderstandings Lead to Fundamental Grief

2024 Trip to Eastern Canada, civilization, Colonialism, Indigenous People After Contact, Indigenous Religion and Philosophy

 

As I have been saying many of the problems between Indigenous Canadians and non-Indigenous Canadians are the result of misunderstandings in the past, and misunderstanding that have continued.

 

As a result of all of these misunderstandings, when many years later the Europeans approached the Indigenous people to make treaties, it was very difficult for their differing world views not to influence what they thought they were agreeing to. For example, Indigenous People thought they were agreeing to share the land while the newcomers thought the indigenous people were agreeing to cede or give up the land to the newcomers.  That very fundamental differing point of view has seriously disturbed relations between them ever since.

According to Barbara Huck,

“Though decision-making was by consensus, most North American cultures put great stock in individuals and lauded efforts on behalf of the community. Status was achieved not by owning property but by giving it away.  Religion permeated every aspect of their lives and was based on respect for the Earth and all living things.”

 

That did not mean all relations between Indigenous groups were peaches and cream. There were conflicts between groups. And those conflicts were real and sometimes vicious. Europeans did not have a monopoly on violence. Disputes between indigenous groups often turned violent and often escalated after that. Yet the overall attitudes of newcomers were radically different.

The world views of the Europeans were very different from that of Indigenous peoples.

As Huck said,

“The newcomers from Europe had a very different world view. Theirs was a class society, governed in an authoritarian way by men who viewed land and its resources as objects to be exploited. They greatly admired the accumulation of personal wealth and assigned positions of power to those who were particularly successful at amassing goods and money. Generosity was viewed as philanthropy, an act of charity, not necessity.”

 

Some of us may be surprised to find that Indigenous people were more democratic than the new comers.

There was another very important difference between the two groups. The Indigenous People saw themselves as part of the natural world, particularly identified with the land in which they lived. They had a deeply spiritual relationship to that natural world as a result. The Europeans saw the natural world as something to own individually and exploit.  Barbara Huck explained the European attitudes this way:

“Their primary allegiance was to the concept of the nation-state and national identity was closely tied to language, religion, and race. They believed implicitly in European superiority and felt compelled to try persuade other cultures to embrace their world view. Yet with few exceptions, Europeans proved woefully unprepared for survival in North America. The first 250 years of European contact were fraught with disorientation, disaster, and privation. Native North Americans provided guiding services, information, interpretation, clothing, medicine and food., as well as wives and extended families. All this was in addition to the furs that were the primary objects of early French and later British interest. And time after time, they rescued the newcomers from starvation. Yet Europeans never did comprehend that this spontaneous, culturally entrenched generosity required  reciprocity. Instead, native North Americans in need were termed beggars.”

 

To the natives of North America, reciprocity was not just a cardinal virtue, it was a religious principle. The newcomers did not catch on. They were prepared to accept gifts from the natives, but often failed to reciprocate when the opportunity arose.  Who is the more civilized? These differing attitudes prepared the ground for misunderstandings and eventually conflicts.  As Huck said in her book on the fur trade of North America,

“This climate of misunderstanding colored the fur trade and the progress of Europeans across the continent. From the 16th century St. Lawrence Valley to the Pacific Coast 300 years later, the pattern was repeated again and again. Recognizing it is fundamental to appreciating the profound changes that took place in North America, between 1550 and 1860, and perhaps just as important in understanding today’s attempts to rectify some of the mistakes of the past.”

 

This is where learning comes in. To learn from our mistakes is important. But to do that our mistakes must be honestly confronted. How else can we get better? Unfortunately, people are often reluctant to admit mistakes, and that makes matters worse. Not better.

 

European Savages

2024 Trip to Eastern Canada, civilization, Colonialism, History, Indigenous People After Contact, Indigenous Religion and Philosophy

On our trip across eastern Canada I had many opportunities to consider Canadian history.

The Indigenous people encountered by Europeans were definitely not savages.  They were members of sophisticated societies that all too often the Europeans did not well understand. Many of the Europeans were blinded by prejudice thinking that they could bring civilization and God to the barbarians and heathens. This was nonsense that the Europeans believed and passed on to their descendants and was largely responsible for the creation of white male supremacy favoured by their clans, but clearly absurd.  The indigenous people were civilized people and had a lot to teach the European newcomers while they were prepared to learn a lot from them as well. That is a wise attitude isn’t it?

It certainly was not true, as many Europeans thought, that this new land was empty of people. England, for example adopted the concept of terra nullius, a Latin phrase meaning “nobody’s land,” to justify their bloody claims. According to this theory, terra nullius included territory without a European recognized sovereign, where no one who counted lived.  Again, this was nonsense.

Contrary to such barbaric unfounded prejudices there were people all over the entire western hemisphere when Europeans arrived and these people mattered just as much as the visitors. The Europeans had no monopoly on civilization. In fact, often they revealed a startling lack of civilization. As Barbara Huck said in her book,

“Parts of North and Central America were among the most densely populated places on Earth. Some anthropologists have estimated the total population of the continent 500 years ago, including Mexico and Central America, at between 112 and 140 million. Mexico, the spectacular Aztec capital, was one of the three largest cities in the world when the Spaniards first laid eyes on it.

Much of Canada and the United States was considerably less populated than that—estimates put the total population of both between nine and 12 million—but North America was not, as some have imagined it, terra nullius, a land without people. And many societies, such as the Iroquoians, were healthier, more prosperous and less class-bound than their European counterparts of the same period.”

 

If first contact was indeed a case of civilization meeting barbarity, it is likely that the Europeans were the barbarians!  

It is also noteworthy, the Indigenous people who first encountered these Europeans in many ways did not share European attitudes and values. As Huck said,

“…the Americas were literally a world apart and North American values and beliefs were very different –in some ways almost directly contrary to the perspectives of the strangers who began to arrive on their shores in the early 1500s, the beginning of the contact period.”

 

For example, I have pointed out elsewhere that indigenous people of North American had views that were by no means all the same. They had many diverse views, just like Europeans.  The spiritual beliefs of indigenous people, for example, were very different from the newcomers, and in my view often preferable. We are of course, each entitled to our own views on that and I intend to continue commenting on those differences.

 

They also had very different views about how societies should be organized and how they should be governed and how wealth should be produced and shared. I find the differences profoundly interesting.  Barbara Huck in her book also commented on them:

 

“Indeed, it’s hard to imagine two more conflicting world views. Whether farmers or hunters, the vast majority of the people of what are now Canada and the United States lived communally in groups of varying sizes. The territories they inhabited were not owned, as we recognize land ownership, but rather commonly acknowledged  to be theirs to use. They governed by consensus, valued generosity and self-reliance, and loathed acquisitiveness and coercion. Stinginess and miserly behavior were strongly condemned. Almost everywhere it was considered immoral to allow anyone to go hungry if food was available.”

 

Not a bad way to live. Maybe the Europeans were the savages.