Nice post as always Erkka! I too have a deep appreciation for indigenous peoples world-wide. I live in southwest Wisconsin, USA in former Ho-Chunk Indian areas. The Ojibwa Nation is in the north and I have good friends in both tribes. I never realized the connection to Finland! Thanks for pointing it out. I feel that the old ways hold a great deal of wisdom for practical and low-impact, healthy living. Many in my circle of local friends and family would argue not, but we all have our opinions. As for me, I'm Christian and believe the Bible to be true cover to cover. Which means I believe in one God, the one in the Bible. I agree with you about the arrogance of many Christians. In fact many are quite judgmental. I suppose we all are at some natural level or another. It can be more discouraging that most realize. I find some of that in my local Baptist Church as well. I guess the way I see it all cannot be summarized in a few paragraphs, but I can acknowledge that the indigenous peoples had thousands of years to learn things, among them things about how the spirit world works. I believe that some of the things they recognized as true are in fact true. Others, maybe not so much? I probably don't make much sense... For instance, the Spanish Conquistadores ravaged South America. In doing so, they destroyed tens of thousands of years (or more?) of our planet's written history which cannot be replaced. There are ruins there which predate the Maya and Inca, unknown to contemporary archaeology which they label the "Olmecs". Surely the Maya and Inca had records about those remotely ancient tribes and peoples, their ways and technologies (which I believe their technology may have been much more advanced than today's IE: The Great Pyramid). There are only bits and pieces of records left, indicating the latter point. I get that they believed that the Gods they worshiped were false, but in my opinion that gave them NO RIGHT to kill an entire civilization and burn all their records, post Calvary mind you. Take the recent discovery of Gobekli Tepe. This site laughs in the face of anyone who thinks man has only been smart for a few thousand years. I could go on for hours, but will spare you that. :D