In my older age I have come to realize that all living things "may" have a level of consciousness that we humans can not understand. An "aurora" around them that is more than just their cellular structure. This would include animals we think of as "smart" (dogs, cats, monkeys, porpoises, whales,horses, pigs etc.), and even "lower" level animals such as birds (the information about crows and their sophistication is amazing).

The question I now struggle with is the age old one that the Native American Indians believed ... do the innanimate parts of the earth also have a consciousness (and by extension a soul)?

It is a firm belief in traditional North American Indian Culture that they DO.

Do the rocks that you pass by have an ability to "be aware" in some manner? Does the tree have an "awareness"? Does mother earth itself have an "awareness"?

I find that increasingly I am drawn toward the Amnerican Indian concept of an "awareness" and a "soul" existing within even those parts of our world that we normally do not think of as having a complex brain. The movie "Avatar" touched upon this concept, and while that movie is science fiction the basic concepts they touched upon ARE BELIEVED by many peoples around the world.

As humans we have only a very limited understanding of the universe and how it really works. Maybe someday a better understanding will arrive, though I am sure it will not be in my lifetime.