ABSTRACT
Indians have a different way of thinking when they are within traditional cultural contexts and natural environments, notes Donald Fixico, a leading American Indian historian. He argues that Indian thinking is "visual and circular in philosophy", suggesting that it is a combination of two realities – the physical and the metaphysical. Decision making is a response to listening and observing the natural environment and then balancing all factors in the process of coming to a consensus. Circular thinking is all about the capacity to look in all directions and appreciate everything that one sees. American Indians are often passionate about protecting "Mother Earth" because she is "life itself". This religious or spiritual regard for the land typifies the way in which the American Indian connects with space rather than the more typical time-orientation of most Americans.
