Some people see unchanged land and call it “wild” or “wilderness.” There is no word for “wild” in our native language, but there is a word in our tribal language for the land the way it was originally made by the Creator, Mowotanani. It is the land functioning as it was supposed to function. People trusted the land because they were part of it and it was part of them, and the seasons followed a pattern, as did life. It was reliable and thus trustworthy.

Here a man sits high on a bluff contemplating the morning, the sun rising over the river valley as the morning star begins to fade. He thinks about all the spirits which are all around him, above and below, which sustain life. 

“Wilderness” comes from the idea of self-willed land, land that does as it was created to do, not interfered with. In western culture, the word “wild” is seen in opposition to the word “domestic,” like livestock. We did not have that word “domestic” either; we used the word “captive” or “slave” for the animals that were not “wild.” The same could go for the land that is interfered with and made captive to human purposes. Why do some people not trust the land as it was made by the Creator, functioning and healthy, and sustaining of life, including our own?