Native Americans knew something that is blind to society.

I have been studying lately how the Native Americans used to live, until the white man came and destroyed them.

While everyone knows the Christian Ten Commandments, The Native Americans had ten commandments of their own:

1. Treat the Earth and all that dwell thereon with respect.
2. Remain close to the Great Spirit, in all that you do.
3. Show great respect for your fellow beings. (Especially Respect yourself)
4. Work Together for the benefit of all Mankind
5. Give assistance and kindness wherever needed.
6. Do what you know to be right. (But be careful not to fall in self-righteousness)
7. Look after the well being of mind and body.
8. Dedicate a share of your efforts to the greater good.
9 Be truthful and honest at all times.
(Especially be truthful and honest with your self.)
10. Take full responsibility for your actions

www.nativevillage.org...


Their way of life is far, far different from the way we live today and it makes me wonder what life would be like if these were the Ten Commandments that were followed as a way of life.

They valued Earth, Mother Nature, and The Great Spirit. I believe that the way they viewed the Great Spirit was the way that religions view their respective God(s). However, I think they worshiped the Great Spirit differently than religions worship God(s). Instead of going to Church, They found the Great Spirit in the beauty that they were given, Mother Earth. Becoming understanding that they needed to be one with Her and use the resources given to live. They understood that they were just a small piece of what made life work and everything around them was alive.

Before they could live life to the fullest, they needed to understand themselves. To respect the beauty that was given, they needed to respect their soul first. Once they did that, they could work together as one to make mankind a powerful and peaceful place.

Helping people was a way of showing the value of character, and when in others were in need, a helping hand was necessary to bring out the best in everyone. People Loving People was a way of life, not a choice they could make. The mind and body were one, and Mother Nature gave them what they needed to take care of themselves.

Honesty to all was important, especially being true to yourself.

They knew mistakes happened, which is what made them human, but when they happened, own up to them and make them right.



My point is, there was no hatred, no fear of another human being because they were all the same, just living on different paths of destiny. There were no laws or rules they had to live by because everything had been given to them and when others were in need, there was no letting one suffer because that would be doing an injustice to the Great Spirit because all of them were his children, no man shall suffer from the pain of not having enough. Life was based on happiness, love, respect, and honesty.

The white man could not understand this. Native Americans did not understand the concept of laws, civilizations, thieves and politics because there was no need to understand them, they were not things.

Religion created laws, hatred and all the negative things in the world. It has been the fuel for war, because one persons beliefs were different than another. The creation of money, gave man the need to be greedy. Disease did not exist until the White man brought it, everything they needed to survive came from the soil. Religious leaders believed they were specifically chosen and forced people think there way was the way of God. Where as Chiefs were chosen by their own people to make their decisions because they were trusted, not because they were a greater man.

Society today, all over the world could take lessons from these great, knowledgeable people. They knew we were all created equally, destined to find their meaning from within and from Mother Nature. They knew the value of a man not what they looked like, what they owned or what they believed but the value of the man was the size of their heart, and how much they gave instead of received. The mistakes society has made cannot be reversed, but it is the way we respond to those mistake is how we can benefit from them. There will always be Good and Evil, but Evil will never beat Good.


"When the white man discovered this country, Indians were running it. No taxes, no debt, women did all the work. White man thought he could improve on a system like this" - Cherokee

"Our first teacher is our own heart"- Cheyenne

"I am poor and naked, but I am the chief of the nation. We do not
want riches but we do want to train our children right. Riches
would do us no good. We could not take them with us to the
other world. We do not want riches. We want peace and love." - Red Cloud

a reply to: solemind4

My point is, there was no hatred, no fear of another human being because they were all the same, just living on different paths of destiny.

Umm... You might wanna bone up on American Indian history, where they used to kill each other in pretty large numbers. Tribe vs. tribe, young warrior vs one that wants to prove himself. They were pretty apt with knives, tomahawk and bow.

In any case, respect for the land, animals, and simply being content with what they had, at least that part is true.

a reply to: solemind4

You must be studying from the new curriculum. The one that excludes the part about native americans committing genocide on other tribes.. owning slaves.. cannibalism.
You bring up a lot of good points, but the majority of that is overly romanticized malarky.

a reply to: solemind4

Beautiful thread and full of love and righteousness.

Our religions fail because they were brought in with the agenda of making some men more important than others and able to exact their rules for personal acquisition onto a society mentally culled into thinking that these actions were sanctified by some God and they should accept their lot.

You know the rules are false when you get told "I am a jealous God". Think about it do we encourage jealousy as some kind of good concept or do we try to teach our children not to be jealous. The problem with religion is that taught during the formative years, you don';t question its teachings. But if you later break that conditioning, you do and realise that most of it doesn't make sense. Has anyone ever looked at the Lord's Prayer and wondered why it doesn't make sense or sound as though its about reality? The heavenly kingdom has never come here despite billions/trillions of mutterings of its words - yet no one questions this prayer's reason or why its uttered and to what end.

In any case, respect for the land, animals, and simply being content with what they had, at least that part is true.

a reply to: boncho

so the OP is partially correct they did know more than we know....lets face it at the very least had we not destroyed their way of life they would and the world around them would still be thriving
more to the point if we lived our lives to those commandments the world would be a better place

a reply to: solemind4

Ironic that today the vast majority of countries with majority white populations are among the most civilized throughout the world.

This "blame whitey for all our problems" sounds like something the Nation of Islam or Black Panthers would preach.

We STILL KNOW it..

a reply to: Dark Ghost
That seems a bit racist to say. Just the implication.

originally posted by: ItCameFromOuterSpace
You must be studying from the new curriculum. The one that excludes the part about native americans committing genocide on other tribes.. owning slaves.. cannibalism.
You bring up a lot of good points, but the majority of that is overly romanticized malarky.

Well, apparently we would be living in an almost utopia if it were not for the "white man" and his destructive ways. Land disputes, competition for survival and general conflict didn't exist before he came along and ruined it for everyone else.

a reply to: ItCameFromOuterSpace

Do you have any sources for the genocide? I've never heard that before, and can't find anything on it.

a reply to: solemind4

Beautiful list of commandments to live by.

a reply to: hopenotfeariswhatweneed

so the OP is partially correct they did know more than we know....lets face it at the very least had we not destroyed their way of life they would and the world around them would still be thriving
more to the point if we lived our lives to those commandments the world would be a better place

Well I don't know. the Inuit population in Northern Canada is nearly untouched in many instances by modernization. There is a lot of incest, violence on women, and familial violence. (they like killing each other).

Like another poster mentioned, the post is highly romanticized.

In fact the only thing that would be a positive if they were "left alone" is that the land wouldn't have been raped for its natural resources, and the native populations wouldn't have been destroyed by an outside force (not to say they wouldn't have been done in by themselves.).

Yes, two very big items. The land can repair itself hopefully the natives will repair their identity in the future, one that can fit in with modernization.

On the other hand though, if we had stayed in the times of tribes, we would be missing out on every technical advantage including medical, not to mention all the other sciences. The human race needs to evolve and it needs to mature and its not going to do that living in longhouses shooting venison for food.

The sooner humanity develops and becomes a type I and more importantly a type II species, it will most likely be able to remedy all the problems its caused with nature and begin to look outward at expanding the human race.

retracted

a reply to: boncho

Well I don't know. the Inuit population in Northern Canada is nearly untouched in many instances by modernization. There is a lot of incest, violence on women, and familial violence. (they like killing each other).

in all fairness since the western world has industrialized the planet we have destroyed many eco-systems and have swayed the balance of nature.....the indigenous peoples of the earth have thrived for millions of years till we came along with a "better way"...we idol money above everything...these people lived for the balance of nature.

...we in the modern world have seen so many changes in the last 200 years since the industrial revolution and it is all par in par to our way of life....we literally suck the life out of the land and sea and then move on....it is only recently we have started to put back...as in forest regeneration and managing livestock ... it has become so obvious it will affect our lives and childrens lives in the future

originally posted by: hopenotfeariswhatweneed
a reply to: boncho

Well I don't know. the Inuit population in Northern Canada is nearly untouched in many instances by modernization. There is a lot of incest, violence on women, and familial violence. (they like killing each other).

in all fairness since the western world has industrialized the planet we have destroyed many eco-systems and have swayed the balance of nature.....the indigenous peoples of the earth have thrived for millions of years till we came along with a "better way"...we idol money above everything...these people lived for the balance of nature.

This isn't right either. China was relatively completely closed off during the Mao years, during which 20-45 million people died. Thats a case of a rather large nation though not up to par with technology. Take tribes and bush peoples, and you find the same thing. Afflictions of all kinds of preventable diseases and famine.

The worst being smalls scale warfare though. While late civilization is bad, when a population of 100 or 1000 goes to war and loses 50 people, that is either 50% or 5% of its population.

In other words, the same things that affect us in our large, modern nations, smaller forest dwellers deal with too.

Unless you want to compare a caribou population to humans, you are going to find the same theme, over and over.


As far as nature goes, the faster we progress to a type I or type II civilization is the faster we can repair our damage. The industrial revolution changed everything. And if we stayed there we'd be far worse off today. And in the future. If we didn't progress to that point nature would be doing good and we wouldn't.

Nothing we can do now but move forward. One day when we figure out fusion, we can start fixing the messes we made. Simply as that.

a reply to: boncho

Nothing we can do now but move forward. One day when we figure out fusion, we can start fixing the messes we made. Simply as that.

this is true.....and i agree ..we are at the point where we can only move forward.....

but that does not take away from the fact that the indigenous people lived in balance with nature and that very fact left them at the mercy of nature...we in modern times are fighting that balance and i would say at this point we are losing the battle

a reply to: ItCameFromOuterSpace

I actually read about that after I wrote this article. I was unaware of some of it, but I think I got away from my goal a little bit because I was really trying to focus on the Ten commandments part. and how the english settlers committed the largest genocide in history.

a reply to: hopenotfeariswhatweneed

I'll agree with you on that. They simply didn't have the capability to have any lasting impact on nature. They were also living by nature's will.

I mean, even today Mother Nature will win against humans and human ingenuity. There are countries like Holland (below sea level), Japan (on fault lines), but it only takes one whollop, and humans lose.

We are however, not completely living on the whims of nature like in the past. Whether it be biological, animal, or weather. Entire populations that are living in pre industrial revolution standards face the threat of being wiped out by germs/bacteria/viruses, weather related disasters, animal attacks, and had we stayed that way we would still face those dangers.

In the end, mother nature can still destroy us, but if you ask most people what would they choose, even if they say otherwise they tend to go in the direction of modern convenience/invention.

a reply to: solemind4

The origin of those 'Ten Commandments' are loosely based on a speech that Chief Seattle gave in 1854, and there's a lot of controversy over whether he actually said all of it, so that makes it more modern....and after much 'Christian' indoctrination.

The land isn't the only thing foreign influence corrupted; their history also has suffered, with much of it being altered or lost as their languages died.

a reply to: LeviWardrobe

Look into the Iroquois Confederacy, Iroquois League, the Beaver Wars. The Erie, Huron, and Susquehannock tribes were basically wiped out by them.