Everything is a Human Being

The major theme of this piece seems to be how Native Americans treated all things as if they have their own life, versus the colonists who were only interested in what (and how much) they could gain from the land. I also feel how the author, as an African American woman, feels that treatment is comparable to the treatment of slaves. She attempts to communicate with nature (literally), and seems to say that there is no safe place for the natural world now- even in a protected area, the trees have been poisoned and grow twisted and unnaturally because of it.