In Blackfoot thought, there is no word for inanimate; everything—rocks, lakes, streams, waterfalls—is animate, reflecting the understanding that humans fit into a relational network where all beings are alive and relational rather than resources to be exploited.

Taking advantage of other systems of knowledge and achieving a balance between Western and non-Western ways of knowing is necessary for human species survival, and if we achieve this balance, we will persist as a species for a long time.

We need to take advantage of other systems of knowledge and have a balance; if we do that, we will be around as a species for a long time.

The Blackfoot indigenous worldview perceives reality panoramically, seeing how the self fits into the whole picture, emphasizing interconnection and flux rather than static categories, with the concept that nothing is inanimate—in Blackfoot there is no word for inanimate because rocks, water, and all natural entities are animate beings.