The first time I went to the Gettysburg battlefield, I felt I was at a holy place. Certainly Lincoln himself felt that the men who fought and died there had hallowed that ground. I think most Americans can understand this idea in relation to Gettysburg, Arlington National Cemetery, even the site of the World Trade Center, which is now held sacred.  Why is it so hard to understand how Native Americans feel about their land? 
Today it is unusual to find anyone of European descent who has lived on the same piece of land for more than two or three generations. Some of us who are into genealogy, travel to Europe to find the place where our ancestors came from. That town or village or farm may take on a deep personal meaning and feeling of connection to place. Native Americans such as the Navajo, who still live on their ancestral  lands their people have inhabited for thousands of years, have a whole different connection to place than most of us.