The life lessons conveyed in Native American legends satisfy an innate human curiosity about the world and give parameters by which to live. This is important because these parameters encourage harmony among people. The Native American legends “The Earth on
Turtle’s Back,” “The Navajo Origin Legend” and political document “The Iroquois Constitution” all recount stories that show how respect for nature, kindness toward others, and unity benefit society. Native American principals are still relevant today. Native Americans have a high regard for the natural world. To them, everything has a unique force that affects others, regardless of size. In “The Earth on Turtle’s Back,” a woman falls from the sky into the water. The animals realize that she isn’t suited to live in the water, so they try to raise earth up from under the ocean, to no avail. It wasn’t until Muskrat had declared that she would “bring up Earth or die trying” (Wiggins 22) that it was accomplished. Despite that Muskrat was small and weaker than some other animals, she …show more content…
Today, more Americans are beginning to value nature and realize the important role it plays in our world. After seeing how much damage society has caused with pollution and deforestation, people recognize the need to respect the Earth. Examples of this include the trend toward living a vegetarian or even vegan lifestyle which shows respect for the creatures that roam the planet. In addition, people are buying energy efficient appliances and recycling to conserve energy and produce less waste. More effort is being made to preserve existing forests. Our politicians have enacted laws to help us reduce our negative impact on nature and educate our society on how to do this. Even though the contemporary valuing of nature is different from that of the Native Americans, the same thought prevails. We have to respect how we treat the land we live on, because it’s all that we
Turtle’s Back,” “The Navajo Origin Legend” and political document “The Iroquois Constitution” all recount stories that show how respect for nature, kindness toward others, and unity benefit society. Native American principals are still relevant today. Native Americans have a high regard for the natural world. To them, everything has a unique force that affects others, regardless of size. In “The Earth on Turtle’s Back,” a woman falls from the sky into the water. The animals realize that she isn’t suited to live in the water, so they try to raise earth up from under the ocean, to no avail. It wasn’t until Muskrat had declared that she would “bring up Earth or die trying” (Wiggins 22) that it was accomplished. Despite that Muskrat was small and weaker than some other animals, she …show more content…
Today, more Americans are beginning to value nature and realize the important role it plays in our world. After seeing how much damage society has caused with pollution and deforestation, people recognize the need to respect the Earth. Examples of this include the trend toward living a vegetarian or even vegan lifestyle which shows respect for the creatures that roam the planet. In addition, people are buying energy efficient appliances and recycling to conserve energy and produce less waste. More effort is being made to preserve existing forests. Our politicians have enacted laws to help us reduce our negative impact on nature and educate our society on how to do this. Even though the contemporary valuing of nature is different from that of the Native Americans, the same thought prevails. We have to respect how we treat the land we live on, because it’s all that we