In a talk recently given at Augustana, Dr. Sandra Boham, a member of the Salish Tribe who is the president of Salish Kootenai College in Pablo, Montana, noted that Native Americans view themselves as being part of nature, rather than being above nature. That view is not unique to Native American culture.
For example, in A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) proposes an ethic that “changes the role of Homo sapiens from conqueror of the land-community to plain member and citizen of it. It implies respect for his fellow-members, and also respect for the community as such.” In Laudato Si’, Pope Francis, drawing inspiration from Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Bonaventure, who “would call creatures, no matter how small, by the name of ‘brother’ or ‘sister,’” observes that “if we feel intimately united with all that exists, then sobriety and care will well up spontaneously.
” Unfortunately, the American experience, in substantial measure, is the story of exploitation and destruction of the world of nature – exploitation and destruction fueled by greed and the vanity of men who believed that the natural world was simply a commodity to be exploited in their pursuit of wealth. The American experience is the story of the annihilation of passenger pigeons, beautiful birds which once numbered in the billions, but which were slaughtered to the point of extinction. Potawatomi tribal leader Simon Pokagon, seeing what was happening, wondered what type of di.