WHY?

Why is modern day man so much afraid of indigenous people? They are afraid of what these peoples represent – freedom, happiness, community and having a deep connect, and relationship with the land and animals they live with and because many indigenous cultures require large areas of land for sustenance and for their very survival as a people. They have lived on land that has been part of their cultures for tens of thousands of years. To the modern day man, they see this as pure waste of the valuable natural resources that can be tapped and used. They see this land only for profit with no concern of the destruction of habitat, people who live on the land or for the animal kingdom that call these lands their home. For the indigenous peoples, these lands are their being, their people, and their cultures and feel a deep and sacred relationship with the land and for all life. But because greed breeds corruption, destruction and control over valuable resources, these peoples who have lived for thousands of years in peace and happiness are forcibly removed from their sacred lands, killing their cultures, and traditions and destroying their people physically, and emotionally.

Modern day man thinks this is okay and ignores the human atrocities and environmental destruction against these people and land, because these people and cultures are not using these lands in a productive way. They see these primitive people as undeserving to live the way they do. They should not be living the way they do, but should live in the ways of the modern day man because we believe this is the civilized way to live. We see them as just wasting land that can be used for other purposes other than just for sustenance and as their home. We the modern day man have chosen to live a very irresponsible way towards the land, polluting her with toxins, stripper her of forests, destroying her ecosystems for thousands of creatures that rely on the land for life and making the land uninhabitable, in some cases for thousands of years. This way of thinking and way of life for the modern day man has only been in the time frame of a few hundred of years, where the existence of indigenous cultures living with the land as hunters and gatherers and some farming has been going on for at least fifty thousand years. For the indigenous cultures, the land was free from modern day man’s toxins; the waters were pure and clean, the air fresh and clean and the flora and fauna abundant.

We are and have allowed these peoples and cultures to die off like some unwanted animal going extinct. We then celebrate their cultures for being unique, being part of the animal kingdom and part of our uncivilized past. We see these cultures as primitive, cave man like behaviors and ways of living that have no place in a modern day world. We also refuse to see the simplicity of living with nature and not against her; we refuse to see our connection to all living things and we refuse to see the horrific destruction we are doing to the land, air and water – our Home. We can learn from these very people and cultures who we are trying to destroy, our true place on Mother Earth – our true connection to all life and the responsibility to protect and preserve all life.