Native American land ethics: Implications for natural resource management

Native American land ethics are not well understood by many governmental natural resource managers. This article presents the results of interviews with selected tribal elders, tribal land managers, and tribal content experts concerning traditional beliefs and values forming a land ethic and how these influence tribal land management practices. The Native American land ethic that emerged from this study includes four belief areas: “All Is Sacred”; (there is no separation between the secular and the spiritual); “Right Action”; (individual choice of action is based on the belief system); “All Is Interrelated”; (everything is interconnected in an egalitarian system); and “Mother Earth”; (the Earth is the physical and spiritual mother of creation). Traditional Native American beliefs concerning the environment appear to spring from a spiritual context rather than the scientific‐utilitarian context more prevalent in the dominant Euro‐American culture.