Northern Plains Experience:

• We are placed on the earth (our Mother) to be the caretakers of all that is here.
• Each generation has a responsibility to "ensure the survival for the seventh generation"
• When we begin to separate ourselves from that which sustains us, we immediately open up the possibility of losing understanding of our responsibility and our kinship to the earth.
• Our ancestors organized themselves into communal groups that were egalitarian, self-sufficient and intimately connected to the land and its resources.
• Inside of extended family systems each member shares responsibility for educating the children, caring for the sick or injured, providing for shelter and obtaining the necessary food requirement for survival.
• Elders are held in high esteem. They alone have the experience and wisdom of the years.
• Our needs in terms of survival must always be balanced with the needs of our families, our community and our nation.
• Everything that we do has consequences for something else. This circular pattern of thinking is a constant reminder to us that we are all ultimately connected to creation.
• ...what we do today will affect the seventh generation and we must bear in mind our responsibility to them today and always.

--Clarkson, Morrissette and Régallet, authors of Our Responsibility to the Seventh Generation, 1992

Other Indigenous Experience

Asian World View: While there is diversity of culture, issues, struggles and levels of organization among the Asian Indigenous people, they also share a lot of commonalities. The most important of these is a commonly shared world view. Harmony with nature - was characteristic of how Asian people lived in the past and even up to the present. The Earth is regarded as a living entity and everything it contains has a soul. Source: Tauli-Corpuz, 1992.

The Six Nations confederacy: The most well known example of Indigenous systems was the Six Nations Confederacy of the longhouse (the Hau de no sau nee). The Six Nations was comprised of the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Senecas, Cayugas and the Tuscaroras. Their territory stretched from Vermont to Ohio and from present-day Quebec to Tennessee. Representatives from each of these nations were organized by a central fire where each of these nation's representatives was chosen through the clan mothers. These representatives could be "impeached" if, at any time, they did not represent the views and the aspirations of the nation. Laws with respect to territories, hunting and fishing and nation-to-nation responsibilities were outlined and agreed upon through the central fire. Consensus was the rule of order; where this could not be reached, the issue would be set aside until such time as further thought could be given to the matter. Although the process for decision-making could be lengthy, the result was more practical and applicable, as all members would reach agreement. This first true system of "Democracy" was borrowed, and the principles of the Constitution of the United States of America are parallel to the basic principles and systems as the Six Nations Confederacy. Source: Hau de no sau nee, 1978.

Selected Web sites

• Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources
  
  
• Indigenous Environmental Network
  
  
• Native Americans and the Environment
  
  

© 2000 International Institute for Sustainable Development