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Article History

Received: 14 April 2025

Accepted: 4 April 2026

First Online: 14 May 2026

Declarations

:

: The author has no another competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

: The author’s meetings with representatives of Indigenous communities took the form of informal conversations between a member of the community and myself, conducted in private, calm settings without invading privacy. Each time, I informed my interlocutors – and this was the essential reason for their willingness to engage in conversations – that the content they shared had primarily an educational and formative purpose. It would serve me in teaching and in shaping the moral attitudes of students, in preparing scholarly work without any economic benefit, as well as in my personal broadening of epistemic horizons and cultivation of ethical attitudes. These conditions, grounded in principles of respect, friendship, and reciprocity (since the interlocutors valued my gratitude and commitment to promoting the ideals of peace and respect for all living beings), were decisive for each of them and binding for me. Since the interlocutors generally preferred to remain anonymous, in this article I have honored all requests for anonymity and confidentiality. I express my deep gratitude to my interlocutors, who so generously shared the gift of their experience and knowledge of moral values, traditions, community, and the spiritual whole. I thank especially those whose wisdom I have conveyed in this article: one representative of the Laguna Pueblo, one interlocutor from the Cochiti Pueblo and one representative from Acoma Pueblo, as well as a long-time friend from the Navajo Nation (meetings are briefly described in the footnotes). The encounters with them will remain forever in my memory and in my heart.