| Contents |
ch. 1. Telling a special story -- First insights -- The creative context -- Chaos theory -- Sense, perception, and creative participation -- Perceptual blindness versus creative sensibility -- Body sense -- The metaphoric mind -- Native stories of creation and emergence -- Art as a means of ceremony and transformation -- Meanings and possibilities -- ch. 2. Philosophy of Native science -- Eco-philosophy -- Tenets of Native philosophy -- Process of Native science -- Native science practice -- Guiding stories -- Guiding thoughts -- Native science paradigm -- Meanings and possibilities -- ch. 3. The ecology of Native American community -- We are all related -- A personal story -- For the good of the people : foundations for leadership, service, and community value -- Workings of Native community -- Workings of Native community -- Native science practice in Native communities -- Meanings and possibilities -- ch. 4. Plants, food, medicine, and gardening -- A green philosophy -- Plants are the hair of Mother Earth -- Plants and the foundations of health and wholeness -- The ecology of Native healing -- The quest for healing knowledge -- Native gardening -- "Native people loved their gardens" -- Native food contributions -- Native permaculture and agricultural technology -- Meanings and possibilities -- ch. 5. Animals in Native myth and reality -- Animals and the Native worldview -- Animal nature -- Our relatives, the animals -- The hunter of good heart -- Animals in myth -- Animals and spirituality -- American Indian animal husbandry -- Meanings and possibilities -- ch. 6. A sense of place -- Living in relationship -- The role of language -- The human body as metaphor for landscape -- The psychology of place -- Applied technologies on land, river, and sea -- Mining -- Hydraulics -- Transportation systems -- Sacred space -- The mythic body of the landscape -- Orienting to place and space -- Meanings and possibilities -- ch. 7. Native astronomy : a skyward view -- Living the heavens : an introduction -- A navajo perspective on cosmology and astronomy -- A relational philosophy : the stars are our relatives -- Community : the Skidi Pawnee, star people of the Plains -- Star visions and the role of plants -- The Nazca animal geoglyphs of Peru -- Place and astronomical orientation -- A cosmic journey -- Meanings and possibilities -- ch. 8. Creating new minds and worlds -- A new sun -- Finding face -- Finding heart -- Finding a foundation -- Meaning and possibilities -- "Land and stars, the only knowledge" (Simon Ortiz). |
