Compare And Contrast The Native American View Of Nature

Nature causes life, beautiful scenery, and a place for humans to live. Nature also causes death, sickness, and worldwide disasters. One can view nature with an optimistic or pessimistic outlook. Some people go through life by taking nature for granite and not realizing that they live at the mercy of nature. Comparatively, there are groups of people who view the nature with all the beauty it provides. The Native Americans’ treated nature with great respect; however, the Europeans did not hold nature in a high regard. The Native American cosmology allowed the land and other living creatures to be treated with great spiritual respect and with the notion that nature is more important than man. The first Europeans who came to the New World thought of land as a place to make profit and living

creatures as strictly food. The Europeans view of nature and the values that the Europeans posses; differ extraordinarily from those of the Native Americans.
Native Americas sought preservation of nature, land, and the environment. They systematically fished for food with hope to never kill more fish than they could eat. Although some people argue that the Native Americans were responsible for killing the majority of bison, the Natives did what they had to do to survive. They treated nature with the highest regard. They held nature in a higher regard than man. The Native American cosmology allowed them to treat the land and environment with a spiritual respect. This spiritual respect for the environment was called Manitou. Manitou represented everything that the Native Americans could not understand about nature. This was a moral ground for the Native Americans and their respect for the environment. “A mysterious, awe-inspiring force that affected human life for both good and evil, such power united all nature in an unbroken web,” (Boyer 13). Although the Native Americans did not have a complete understanding for nature, they respected it and treated it as if it had a spiritual value. They did understand that nature affects humans in a positive and negative way. With this knowledge they treated nature as if it could control the outcome of their lives.
The first Europeans who came to the New World had a completely different view on nature and the environment than the Native Americans.

The Europeans believed that the land was there so people can make a profit. “Seeking riches, resources, and trading opportunities…” (Gillon 53). They also believed that living creatures were on Earth so they could have food. The Europeans did not think of nature as if it was a spirit, they thought of nature as a place for people to make money, live, and eat. When the Europeans first settled in the New World they did not understand that the Native Americans knew how to manage the environment. The Europeans were faced with many starving years and many freezing winters. Eventually they lived in harmony with the Native Americans after they requested the help of the Natives even though their methods and cultures were so different. “[The colonizers] might have been completely perished if the Indians nearby had not helped by bringing food,” (Gillon 54). The Indians helped to Europeans through the three years (1606-1609) by giving them food. The Europeans treated the land as a place to strictly make profit and not as a spiritual

power.
The Native Americans treated nature as a spirit. This allowed them to treat the land and other living creatures with great respect and with awe. However, the Europeans treated the land as a place where they can grow crops and make profit. Also, they treated the animals as food and not as a part of nature. The Europeans had a pessimistic outlook on nature; however, the Native Americans always displayed an optimistic perspective on nature.