You never learn those things in school. Older American Indians have a distinct way of looking at and living in the world. They have an appreciation for what you ve been given. They have a connection to the spirit. We live with things we don t know anything about.
Elders carry some of that stuff from the generation before.
Older American Indians understand all life as connected to the spiritual and natural worlds. One thing I liked about the old people is that they had Indian thinking. For example, my mother and I were driving down the highway and saw a stand of dying birch trees. She asked me if I knew why they were dying. I probably would have explained it as pollution or some other technical explanation.