ea r t h j u s t i c e
“Who will find peace
with the lands?”
by Paula Donnelly Roark
M
ost of us have a
favorite place
in nature—a
mountain, a
lake, a forest
meadow, a des-
ert vista, a river, a waterfall—to which
we can no longer return to because
it has been “developed.” The physical
beauty and surrounding wildlife have
been wiped away or considerably
diminished because roads have been
built, houses constructed, or large
sports and entertainment centers
funded. Given this situation, a ques-
tion posed by the esteemed Native
American scholar Vine DeLoria, Jr. is
particularly appropriate. In his book,
God is Red, he asks us: “Who will find
peace with the lands? The future of
humankind lies waiting for those
who will come to understand their
4 IMAGINE l FALL 2016
Photo: Wib Middleton
lives and take up their responsibilities
to all living things.”
For those of us who live in
Sedona with its inspiring Red Rocks
vistas, these words pack particular
potency. Sedona and its neighboring
lands seem to be home to a particu-
lar spiritual landscape that demands
greater understanding. It requires
attention because it personifies our
human necessity to recognize that we
are an integral and connected part of
this majestic landscape—not as own-
ers and users, but as participants with
responsibilities to the natural world.
And it is, of course, the same for any-
one one who carries with them their
treasured places in nature.
But the question for us is how to
give rise to this greater comprehen-
sion of nature. In the commercial
world we live in today, Vine DeLoria’s
viewpoint—no matter how beauti-
fully stated—holds little value. Land is
viewed as a commodity to be bought
and sold for a great majority of people,
in terms of both law and practice.
However, paying attention to these
same two words can put us on the
path to identifying how to move for-
ward. Again, Vine DeLoria points out
possible paths for our consideration.
DeLoria believes that the inco-
herence of our modern world runs
deep and must be recognized if we
are to make any headway. He points
out that for Native Americans it is the
concept of nature from which their
basic understandings and beliefs are
built. But for North Americans of
European heritage it is the concept
of history that organizes perspectives
and beliefs. To put it another way, it is
nature versus history or space versus