The Transcendence of Religion in the Adirondacks

      The religious and spiritual beliefs of early New York State inhabitants and settlers have had a transcending influence on how humans perceive nature and the Adirondacks in particular. For example, arguments about whether humanity and nature are interconnected verses separate entities can be linked to spiritual values held by the Native Americans and Europeans that inhabited the Adirondack region in the past.  Such beliefs had varying implications on how these groups of people viewed and utilized the Adirondacks and in fact, much of the discourse regarding the park today is rooted in these past attitudes towards wilderness.

Living in and around what is now the Adirondack Park, the tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy valued and respected the natural landscape tremendously.  Perceiving the wilderness, and “indeed the world,” as “one Great Longhouse,” the natives saw nature as a neighbor and respected part of the community, whom with they shared the land peacefully.  Paul Schneider conveys this idea explaining that, “physically, metaphorically, and spiritually, the forest was the bulk of [the] longhouse” for the Iroquois.  “It was the greater part of home.”

 For the Christian, European settlers however, the Adirondacks were far from home and they subsequently interacted with the wilderness quite differently.  On one side, the Separatists abided by the dualist belief “that a perfect human world [could]…be constructed entirely outside of this thing called wilderness,” leading them to settle on the woods’ exterior, while still exploiting the area for its resources.  In contrast, the Jesuits were more interested in creating “a Roman Catholic society within the wilderness through conversation.”  Thus, different sects of Christianity held opposing views of the Adirondacks.

      These contrasting perceptions of nature are reflective of the various ecological implications presented in the Bible.  In particular, Lynn White, in The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis, argues that humans naming animals and God creating nature to “serve man's purposes” evokes human “dominance over [nature],” and establishes precedent for “man's limitless rule over creation.”  This suggests a divide or “dualism between man and nature,” which the Separatists seemed to uphold.  Comparatively, Saint Francis preached “equality of all creatures, including man,” which is reflected more in the behavior of the Jesuits.  Evidently, religious and spiritual beliefs impacted how people viewed and used the Adirondack wilderness.
          These notions of dualism verses coexistence have persisted and remain the basis for many current arguments regarding the Adirondacks.  From the dualist perspective, Bill McKibben scoffs at evidence of civilization in wilderness, noting his disappointment when seeing “with sad precision the exact boundaries of the national park” atop Mount Rainer in Washington state.  Yet, William Conon argues that by setting “humanity and nature at opposite poles,” we leave “little hope of discovering what an ethical, sustainable, honorably human place in nature might actually look like.”  Unfortunately, today, and since the arrival of the Europeans, such debates seem to hinge on the extremes of either separatism or interconnectedness.  It is possible however, that a more moderate view of nature, one that proved successful before the arrival of the Europeans, would be most beneficial: a return to the vision of the world and the Adirondacks as members of “one Great Longhouse.”

Sources:

Bill McKibben: Wandering Home

Lynn White Jr.: The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis http://www.uvm.edu/~gflomenh/ENV-NGO-PA395/articles/Lynn-White.pdf

Paul Schneider: The Adirondacks: A History of America’s First Wilderness