Lindsey Pritchett - Native Americans and their Sacred Landscapes

While we were supposed to do three outside of class readings, I chose to substitute one for a movie we watched in Religion and Ecology class. It was a movie about the Native American's sacred places in nature not being respected by the public. The Wintu tribe of Northern California was the one that especially stuck in my mind. I loved what the medicine woman of the tribe said about Nature, itself, being their church and that the young "hippies" would not dare enter an organised church half nude. I think she makes a valid point.
In the organised churches of major religions, there are buildings in which a specific code of conduct is expected. You dress up, you enter the building, you sit quietly and reverently and behave yourself. At least, this is what was expected of me as a child attending Roman Catholic mass with my parents. It is almost as though, upon entering the building dedicated to worshipping the holy or the divine, we disassociate with our true identity as well as separate ourself from nature: the place where god truly lives.
The Native Americans do not dress up when going out into nature. In fact, they bring themselves and little else. They do not disassociate from who they really are for their true identity is what they believe God wants to see. Not someone who sits in a pew plotting their grocery lists and after mass brunch while supposedly listening to the holy gospel of the word Jesus.
I have a great deal of respect for the Native Americans and their religious traditions because they truly belive that nature is where god lies and that, in loving and respecting nature you show your appreciation for the divine.