By Winona LaDuke
Akiing, the land to which I belong. That’s how I feel about this land. It turns out that I am a patriot to a land, not a flag, and yet some of the basic principles that the US was founded upon resonate with me. Those principles are about dignity, respect, having a voice, being fair. Those are all the constitutional principles of American Democracy. America didn’t discover representational democracy, they learned it from the Iroquois confederacy, which had put aside the weapons of war and made great peace. Iroquois territory spanned upstate New York, Pennsylvania, into Ontario and more. A territory as big as Germany. Lots of peace. That’s what I like.
The Anishinaabe made treaties with the Iroquois, one treaty called the One Dish, One Spoon Treaty. One Dish: Mother Earth, and as such we should take care of her. One Spoon: shared between all the peoples, a ritual carried out in many cultures, making relatives. One Dish, One Spoon, we are related. Other treaties of peace came about between the Anishinaabe and the Dakota- spanning the area along the Red River. That agreement, known as the Sweet Corn Treaty, reaffirmed our right to coexist on these lands. We keep that agreement with the Dakota, and after many years of brutal warfare maintain peace and are told that there should be no animosity between us.
These days, there is no peace, there is conflict everywhere, and there is confusion and fear amongst many. The idea that conflicts should be solved by shooting the Speaker of the House of Minnesota is wrong. The suggestion that we should forget about Reverend Martin Luther King, and remove his bust from the White House, diminishes all that the people of this land have aspired to because we all aspire to peace and justice. Great nations make peace.
Spending $45 million on a party for yourself which looks like a party thrown by North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, isn’t a compliment to citizens, especially with cuts to the Veterans Administration, Medicare and more. There’s a set of ethics which guides many of us. As we see the Trump Administration planning to sell off federally protected lands for logging and legalizing polluters, it’s easy to say, “It’s legal now, so I am going to do it.”
It reminds me a lot of a gang rape of a woman, or maybe the Whitestone Massacre. Just because someone said you can do it, does not mean you should. There are soldiers who disobeyed orders to murder and rape, and there are, hopefully a few corporations which say, just because we can steal and pollute, we are not going to do that, because our children will drink this water and because we are better people.
This is a time for restraint. In the teachings of Native people, like the Iroquois, this is a time to think seven generations ahead. “In each deliberation we must consider the seventh generation from now” is an essential cornerstone and covenant of the oldest democracy in North America – the Iroquois Confederacy. That covenant reminds us that when we make decisions today about water, about pollution, the sort of behavior we tolerate, the impacts will be felt seven generations from now. That is certainly true as we see the onset of crazy weather patterns, and freak storms- those are a consequence of decisions made many years ago to add more carbon to the environment. We have a chance to change that.
The American mirage is based on the idea of a western frontier, or greener pastures ahead. The time of frontiers is over, except perhaps for those billionaire space cowboys, who want to head to other planets. The fact is that there’s not another frontier, or another world for us. There’s this land, akiing, this very land to which we belong, and it’s time to be a patriot to this land – to take care of her, our Mother Earth. It’s time for all of us to reach deep into our souls, which have been nourished by water and foods from these lands, and seek to be our best selves.
Sitting Bull, the great Lakota leader would say “Let us put our minds together to see what kind of future we can make for our children.” That teaching is good now. As I look at my clean lake, the herons who fly above me, the fireflies which are said to be disappearing everywhere, I think of the teachings of my ancestors, and how those teachings kept our behavior as humans in check, and in accordance with the laws of Mother Earth. Those laws are how “America was Great”.
Let me be clear, I think that America was great when you could drink water from every stream and river, there were 50 million buffalo, and passenger pigeons blackened the skies, fish and maple sugar were in abundance and there was peace. That’s what I am here for, seeing the return of the buffalo, the biggest wasteful dam projects come down like those on the Klamath River, and waters full of life.
As America celebrates its independence in troubling times, remember the dignity that our ancestors sought, and the very land to which we belong. I am a patriot to this land. Let us all care for our Mother Earth and make peace again.
