Native Americans do not worship the land; they see the land as an expression of the Creator. Treating the earth with the same respect and love that a person shows his or her mother is a way of giving thanks to the Creator for the gift of being alive.

To Native Americans, the earth is sacred... a living entity that exists for the benefit of all forms of life. The earth plays a central role in the lives of Indians, as stated by Annie Peaches, (Apache elder): "The land is always stalking people. The land makes people live right. The land looks after us.

The idea of dividing landscape into plots of individually owned land is a concept alien to Native Americans. That is why the Indians could not understand when the Pilgrims built fences to define property lines. How could anyone own the earth?

Non-Indians tend to think of themselves as separate from the earth; it is something to be mastered. They think in terms of owning land... of land as a commodity. Even the word "frontier" is based on the notion that a certain area lies undeveloped, awaiting settlement and civilization, which implies that land is not good until it is used for some purpose, a belief that is incomprehensible to Native Americans.