Native American’s culture and perception of life issues have gone through many changes since the onset of European contact. On an environmental perspective, Native Americans of the Colorado region have attitudes and values that define their perspective on environmental issues like forests, water, agriculture, mining and pollution, settlement among others. In the early years of the twentieth century, Native Americans had intensified crop farming and grazing by reclaiming arid lands through irrigation where they have been grazing livestock, mainly the horses. However, lack of sufficient farming resources, high costs of land reclamation and persistent pest menace have made them decide to lease some of their lands to non-natives.
The native tribes in Colorado have been associated with game hunting fishing and gathering and have also engaged themselves in wildlife management programs. However, their hunting practices have brought about a lot of controversy with environmentalists claiming such practices have an adverse effect on endangered species. This has let to environmental legislations that aim at addressing both wildlife conservation and protection of the religiously inclined cultural practices of the natives.
The Colorado tribes have, for many years, struggled to address the water issue due to the arid status of the area. The competition for water from rivers Colorado and Columbia has of late intensified with some tribes diverting water to dams, and lack of clear water control policies has led to controversy over water use rights on aquatic reservations, power generation, fishing and another usage.
Native Americans have had to cope with various health-related issues. Diabetes is a major health issue in the Alaska region and the health system suffers lack of sufficient resources with the Federal Government’s allocation being inadequate. Current developments have seen individual tribes moving towards managing their own health programs at the community level, making facility and disbursements management more efficient. In addition, tribal health rights and traditions are being integrated with health research activities contributing to high level of health awareness and control at the community level.
Although the Native Americans believe in supreme power, different tribes practice different religions. However, some Native Americans turn to animals they highly hold deer for spiritual freedom. In addition, they hold nature in a more spiritual sense and associate it with supernatural powers. Moreover, they believe in spirits being in control of all human interactions and base their dreams and visions on spiritual powers. Unlike other religions that believe in birth and death as the two extremes of life, Native Americans belie is a bit different with life taken to be a cycle. In this case, they believe in life after death in form of reincarnation, transmigration to an animal, or new life in a new world.
The earlier diets of Native Americans have been associated with their activities, with fish, Meat and nuts plus maple sugar being the main diets. The trend has changed by adopting modern diets. However, their diet always has more concentration of fats making it be of lower nutritional quality. The effect is the common cases of health-related issues like diabetes and obesity.