Dan Flores

As had been true of our first hunting ancestors in Africa, true of the Neanderthals, true of the Clovis people, native ceremonial lives centered on an ancient human desire to control nature. But they did so primarily as part of a religious philosophy, not a scientific one.

As had been true of our first hunting ancestors in Africa, true of the Neanderthals, true of the Clovis people, native ceremonial lives centered on an ancient human desire to control nature. But they did so primarily as part of a religious philosophy, not a scientific one.

As had been true of our first hunting ancestors in Africa, true of the Neanderthals, true of the Clovis people, native ceremonial lives centered on an ancient human desire to control nature. But they did so primarily as part of a religious philosophy, not a scientific one.

Managing animals based on population modeling, carrying capacity of landscapes, or selective sustainable harvest, as modern ecologists and biologists do, would have been incomprehensible because native cause-effect explanations for why things happened relied on completely different premises.

Managing animals based on population modeling, carrying capacity of landscapes, or selective sustainable harvest, as modern ecologists and biologists do, would have been incomprehensible because native cause-effect explanations for why things happened relied on completely different premises.

Managing animals based on population modeling, carrying capacity of landscapes, or selective sustainable harvest, as modern ecologists and biologists do, would have been incomprehensible because native cause-effect explanations for why things happened relied on completely different premises.

The religions through which Native people understood animals were, however, superb at apprehending the kinship between animals and humans. Crucial in Native America was knowledge about how to influence animals in a realm usually defined as supernatural, an essential part of religion.

The religions through which Native people understood animals were, however, superb at apprehending the kinship between animals and humans. Crucial in Native America was knowledge about how to influence animals in a realm usually defined as supernatural, an essential part of religion.

The religions through which Native people understood animals were, however, superb at apprehending the kinship between animals and humans. Crucial in Native America was knowledge about how to influence animals in a realm usually defined as supernatural, an essential part of religion.

A friend from my years in Montana, Professor Roslyn LaPierre, has done the best insider account so far of the invisible reality that was central to this 10,000-year-old world.

A friend from my years in Montana, Professor Roslyn LaPierre, has done the best insider account so far of the invisible reality that was central to this 10,000-year-old world.

A friend from my years in Montana, Professor Roslyn LaPierre, has done the best insider account so far of the invisible reality that was central to this 10,000-year-old world.

Rosalind's own Blackfeet people possessed what she calls a powerful worldview that suggests the Blackfeet desire to manipulate animals and nature is a deep-seated human impulse available through the assistance of supernatural allies. The degree of power one possessed to call on those allies determined how much you could make happen.

Rosalind's own Blackfeet people possessed what she calls a powerful worldview that suggests the Blackfeet desire to manipulate animals and nature is a deep-seated human impulse available through the assistance of supernatural allies. The degree of power one possessed to call on those allies determined how much you could make happen.

Rosalind's own Blackfeet people possessed what she calls a powerful worldview that suggests the Blackfeet desire to manipulate animals and nature is a deep-seated human impulse available through the assistance of supernatural allies. The degree of power one possessed to call on those allies determined how much you could make happen.

Human beings could become vectors of power from these supernatural realms if a sacred being sought them out, or through a vision quest or other effort to find a sympathetic animal ally, or even by purchasing power from someone who already had it.

Human beings could become vectors of power from these supernatural realms if a sacred being sought them out, or through a vision quest or other effort to find a sympathetic animal ally, or even by purchasing power from someone who already had it.

Human beings could become vectors of power from these supernatural realms if a sacred being sought them out, or through a vision quest or other effort to find a sympathetic animal ally, or even by purchasing power from someone who already had it.

Another intriguing look at native religious traditions with respect to animals comes from the work of an anthropologist who lived with the Athabascan-speaking Koyukon peoples of Alaska. The Koyukans preserve an ideology with powerful echoes of how life in the 10 millennia span of Native America must have worked.

Another intriguing look at native religious traditions with respect to animals comes from the work of an anthropologist who lived with the Athabascan-speaking Koyukon peoples of Alaska. The Koyukans preserve an ideology with powerful echoes of how life in the 10 millennia span of Native America must have worked.