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Alberta Online Encyclopedia
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Nature's Law
Spiritual Life, Governance, Culture, Traditions, Resources, Context and Background
The Heritage Community Foundation, Alberta Law Foundation and Albertasource.ca
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Right to Exist

Indigenous Peoples

Constitutional rights
and responsibilities

Social Reality

Rights of
Interpretation

Origin of
Interpretation

Exercised as a
People

Definition of People

Great Turtle Island

Relationships

Equality

Survival for
All Beings

Survival for
the People

Right to Exist

Implications

The Land

Spirit of the Land

Judicial and Fiscal Order

Empowering

Visual representation of nature's laws


Nature’s Laws affirms that each existing group of beings on earth has a Right to Exist ( i.e Plants, Insects, Birds, Animals, Humans).

The basis of Nature’s Laws extends to all life on earth. It is not centred on human activity, the way it is in Western religions. This principle is crucial for the environmental law:

"When an Indian woman, for example, takes seeds from the barrow of a field mouse to flavor soup, she does not take all the mouse’s seed; she "pays" for the seeds by leaving some tidbit for the mouse, a bit [of] wasná (pemmican), for instance. Even a mouse must live; it cannot be deprived of its means of life without payment in kind" … "From …[the] notion of the relatedness of all that is, stems an ethic that expounds adjustment to nature both human and non-human which underpins Native American ethical thought and axiology. Adjustment to nature, both kinds, is seen as a value and goal to be attained" (Bunge 94).

Wah Koh Towin is concerned with how people are related. It begins from the first blade of grass. Everything is related to the very last tree. Insects are related. From grass to insects to animals. All involves the evolvement of life…eventually to the dear and the human. Everything has its place on earth and everything is interrelated. (Cree Elder, Wayne Roan, October 2003)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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