Remembering the Seventh Generation
For the Ojibway communities around
Lake Superior, “sustainable development” is truly johnny-come-very-lately.
Traditional use of natural resources
for the Anishinabeg and other native peoples always reflected the philosophy
called “The Seventh Generation.”
The concept is simple, and culturally
ingrained, explains Jim St. Arnold of Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife
Commission (GLIFWC) near Odanah, Wisconsin.
“When you do things today, you don’t
do things for today, you do things for the future,” he explains.
The resources should be “protected
not for your children or their children, but for children seven generations
down.”
With that goes some other simple beliefs.
People have their place within the natural systems and there is a give
and take within that circle.
“It’s more of a teaching that puts
things into perspective,” says Neil Kmiecik, also of GLIFWC. “When you
take something, you always give something.”
St. Arnold gives an additional example
of wise resource use: “A little to those who have gone. Some to those who
are living. But most to those not yet born.”
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