The Land: Sacredness and Cash Crops

There's no question that Native Americans have a special relationship with the land. Vine Deloria Jr and Clara Kidwell explain that Native American land is sacred because the people feel a deep connection with nature.This connection lies both in the physical and religious importance of the land. Although relationships with land vary among different people, it's difficult to understand the extent of this relationship and whether Native Americans have the same connection with the land as their ancestors.

Traditionally, Native American tribes treated their land with respect by only cultivating what they needed. However, if connection does indeed entail respect for the land itself, this raises the question of whether cash crops hinder that connection. According to the Tohono O'odham tribe, land doesn't belong to anyone because nature is not a possession. But once the Akimel harvested wheat to sell for a profit, they utilized the land differently. The land no longer was used purely for survival but rather for economic purposes. Compared to the pre-colonization period, this relationship is much different. Now Native Americans treat the land similarly to farmers because the land is now an economic resource. Does this mean the Tohono O'odham now think the land is owned? Since the O'odham tribes do continue to acknowledge that the land is a living entity, they don't think its necessarily possessed. However, the harvesting of cash crops does make the O'odham tribe's physical connection from the land different from hundreds of years ago. Now, the tribes manipulate the land for the sake of economic improvement.

Also, the O'odham's connection with the land is much greater than the physical. Native Americans believe land is sacred. Tribes view areas of land as inherently holy or a site of great spiritual importance.  Therefore, do cash crops affect the sacredness of the land? Although inherently religious sites like ceremonial areas aren't used for harvest, land formations the tribes consider holy are affected. These formations are grasslands, mountains, and valleys that Native Americans attribute to a higher power. However, their spiritual value is negatively affected if they are also meant for economic purposes. Thus, cash crops do lessen the sacredness of some land forms because their meanings for Native Americans changes. What once was land either untouched or used sparingly now aids in the economic prosperity of tribes. Therefore, the spiritual value of the land is not the only reason why the O'odham respect it. This alters the way in which Native Americans connect with the land and how they view the land itself.