This article examines the development of Henry David Thoreau's theology of the wild through his engagement with American Indians. Thoreau believed that for peoples' souls to survive being cut off physically from wilderness, they must cultivate this wilderness within–a feat they must learn–and appropriate–from indigenous peoples.

Henry David Thoreau is often referred to as a “prophet,” but the degree to which he embraced that role has not been recognized. I argue that with his final manuscript, Wild Fruits , he sought to produce scripture and, through it, to turn humanity's gaze from the skies, where the Judaeo-Christian God was thought to dwell, to the earth and nature.