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.