Indinawemaaganidog – We are ALL Related
Many Native American tribes have a word meaning “We are ALL related”. For the Ojibwe people that word is Indinawemaaganidog. It represents a concept foreign to English speakers in its all-encompassing inclusivity. Not only are all people part of a single family, but so is all of life on this fine planet, including rocks and mountains, rivers and lakes. Knowingly, living in a world full of family is rich with implications. We respect family, we honor and love our family. We are grateful for gifts given, wanting to give something in return. Most importantly, we feel a strong need to protect and care for our family members. Living in the spirit of Indinawemaaganidog the tribes spread light all around.
Our mainstream culture is about none of this, and it shows in the darkness we spread.
That we have a President who continues the American tradition of disregarding treaties for the sake of gold says we have learned nothing from our own history. To move brutalized Palestinians out of the rubble that now is Gaza, their home, and send them someplace nobody else wants, in a land far from their own – a description of a reservation if ever I heard one – so “we” can rebuild there a lavish, seaside resort – a Riviera – says we have learned nothing from the darkness we spread years ago among the original inhabitants of this country. If we saw members of our family in Palestine, wouldn’t we help them rebuild the city of their dreams? In the Native village, when a hunter came home from a successful hunt his bounty was shared with all so that none went hungry. Today, in the decisions of our Presidents we are throwing our most desperate brothers and sisters around the world into deeper hunger and medical despair by closing down the USAID program that was their lifeline. This, so tax breaks can please the American voter, especially the wealthiest. How dark our souls must be in the eyes of the God who encouraged us to feed and clothe the neediest of our brethren. We, the wealthiest country in the world, need a hefty dose of Indinawemaaganidog!
The Menomonee People of Northeastern Wisconsin protect their forests and harvest timber sustainably. They do this so well that foresters from around the world come to them to learn their methodology. They have also been waging a years-long struggle to save the waters of the Menomonee River from a proposed mine almost at the water’s edge. Clean water is life, and mines do not leave clean water in their wake. Who is spreading the light of life to a thriving river? Who is spreading darkness and death for gold?
The Bad River Ojibwe have, for even more years, been fighting Enbridge Energy, a Canadian pipeline company, in court to shut down its Line 5 Pipeline that endangers the crystal clear waters of Northern Wisconsin. A spill here also endangers Lake Superior. Line 5 was built in 1953 and today carries 23 million gallons of dirty oil from the Tar Sands in Alberta, Canada across the environmentally sensitive Northwoods, under the Straits of Mackinac, across Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to a refinery in Sarnia, Ontario. If you think you have the stomach for it Google Alberta Tar Sands. Be sure to check out the Inside Climate News site for their pictures. Quite a price paid for the privilege of driving with an internal combustion engine under the hood instead of a battery. A few days after our DNR approved relocating Line 5 off the Bad River Reservation to a new route closer to Copper Falls State Park, an Enbridge pipeline in southern Wisconsin spilled 70,000 gallons of oil.
From the 70% loss of the living since the ’70s here on earth, to plastics in our brain, to the increasing price, both in terms of human life and property loss, we pay due to climate change – words the scientists at NOAA now dare not utter – it is clear that this culture of ours values money and convenience above everything else. We have no concept of being related to this planet and the amazing diversity of life she nurtures. Unless we learn to live with the spirit of Indinawemaaganidog, unless we learn to truly walk gently, respectfully, lovingly and with gratitude and restraint upon this Earth, our darkness will only spread. Where the Chinese are successfully expanding their influence through attempts at international cooperation, we are using threats and a totally self-serving manifest destiny mindset. We have become the aggressive political force we thought we were guarding ourselves and our allies against. We are now the swaggering, international bully. We may gain acquiescence; we will also lose friends. Long ago, John Donne wrote No Man is an Island, the same is true for nations.
We need to adopt the foundational principles of Indinawemaaganidog, based on building a healthy, thriving humanity and natural world if we are to have that. Slash and burn politics will only leave a smoking, barren landscape. Stand up for our place in the human and natural family now. Speak up to all our legislators and do it often. They need to hear from us. Another way to protest is to reduce our spending to the bare necessities. Instead of shopping, make art, plant gardens, make friends with all kinds of people and enjoy spending quiet time in the woods. You might even help the friends of the Citizen’s Climate Lobby plant a fruit orchard at Westview Park, Wausau to celebrate Earth Day and our wonderful diversity on April 27th at 10 in the morning. Remember. We are All related.