“First Nations share the fundamental principle that the "environment" is a source of reference to the extremely dynamic and infinitely complex system of interaction between all Creation, including natural and cyclical processes. All Creation is connected and interrelated, and all parts of the environment combine to form a whole.  All creation is intrinsically dependent on the health and well being of the environment’s infinite biodiversity…. Natural law governs and maintains this system in a delicate and sustained balance.” 

from "A First Nation Environmental Vision Statement and Self-Government Implementation Strategy" (1996).

"[I]t’s not only the Indians that sing the song at the Winter Dance. It’s all over the world. All nations, they all have a song. That’s what my people say. When you’re a baby the first thing you do is learn to hum, to make a little noise. That’s what they call a song. Each nation in their own language in their own way have a song. Clear ’round the world [the centering tree] in all the four directions . . . don’t matter what nation it is. The world has a song. The rivers, the creeks, the winds, the trees, everything has a whispering sound.

- Martin Louie/Snpakchiin, Kettle Falls Okanagon/Salish elder, from the Harvard Forum on Religion and Ecology web site