{"id":3477354,"date":"2019-07-18T07:01:54","date_gmt":"2019-07-18T07:01:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/?p=3477354"},"modified":"2019-07-25T17:43:16","modified_gmt":"2019-07-25T17:43:16","slug":"uncertain-future-forum-winona-laduke-essay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/stories\/2019-07-18\/uncertain-future-forum-winona-laduke-essay\/","title":{"rendered":"The Seventh Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

This essay is part of our July 2019 Uncertain Future Forum on the topic: “If collapse is imminent, how do we respond?” We invite you to comment below, and to read the other essays here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\"Winona<\/p>\n

Winona LaDuke<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In the time of the Seventh Fire, the Anishinaabe were told, we will have a choice between two paths: one well-worn, but scorched; and a second that’s not well-worn, but green. We are instructed to make a choice. For those of us who choose the Green Path, there is another fire\u2013 it\u2019s called the Eighth Fire. \u2026 Light the fire<\/em>, I say.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no question that the Wiindigo (a cannibal spirit which stalks the North Country), or what I refer to as Wiindigo Economics, has scorched the earth\u2013 that\u2019s the path of fossil fuels, war, capitalism, greed and irresponsibility. We see that. Indigenous people have seen that for five hundred years. In fact, we have lived in a post-apocalyptic world. That\u2019s our lot.<\/p>\n

We remember our people\u2013 90% of them perished from biological weaponry of smallpox blankets. We remember them. We remember when America was great\u2013 there were 50 million buffalo, passenger pigeons blackened the skies, and there was fresh water, water you could drink everywhere. We remember the forests, the plants, the rivers, and the sacred places. We feel sorrow, traumatic shock, not even post-traumatic stress disorder; ongoing stress<\/em>. We live it. We experience the amnesia, historic and ecological, and we remain. We are survivors. We remain grateful, seek to keep our covenant with the Creator and our relatives whether they have paws, roots, hooves, fins, or wings. We remember them in our clans, our ceremonies, our instructions, and seeds.<\/p>\n

What I notice more than anything is that the birds and insects are gone. I know that\u2019s the beginning. I also know that I live where the wild things are\u2013 there are still frogs, birds, wolves, deer. Anything which is endemic seems to be stable, anything which moves is perishing. That makes sense, because about 80% of the remaining biodiversity in the world is in Indigenous territories<\/a>. Simply stated, if we want to keep our memories and keep life, we will need to protect those relatives. And we will need to plant. Seeds are promise, they are hope.<\/p>\n

A Graceful Transition and the Sitting Bull Plan<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let us put our minds together to see what kind of future we can make for our children\u2026
\n<\/em>\u2013 Sitting Bull<\/div>\n

I have been wanting a graceful transition from the fossil fuels era. That means: having a plan or two, getting things in order for the transition, weaning myself from my addictions, and relocalizing. I call this “from a tipi to a Tesla.” That\u2019s basically what I want to see<\/em>\u2013 good technology. <\/em>In public policy this is posited as the Green New Deal agenda, but I\u2019d go further, and call it the Sitting Bull Plan\u2013 it needs to be broad, bigger than the U.S., and have the depth of Indigenous knowledge. Here are some elements.<\/p>\n

Where the Wild Things Are<\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s Indigenous peoples. On a worldwide scale, over 80% of the world\u2019s remaining biodiversity is in Indigenous territories. We live where there are wolves, bears, buffalo, sturgeon, geese, eagles, and salmon. We live in the Amazon, in the places where the \u201cuncontacted people\u201d remain, in a world with the animals. Our lands also retain agro-biodiversity of thousands of seeds grown for a millennium, and the grasses and forests to support life. Our territories contain sacred places and sacred landscapes, all of which are the places where we are able to reaffirm and recharge our relationship with Mother Earth. Stand with these people. Because there is life where we live.<\/p>\n

Water Protector<\/strong><\/p>\n

Be a Water Protector. Worldwide, water is under great threat, and many go without. The term Water Protector<\/em> was mainstreamed under a hail of water cannons and tear gas at Standing Rock<\/a>, but people have been working to protect ground water and surface water for decades. That\u2019s water not only humans drink but all the other relatives, whether they have wings, or fins, or roots, or paws. I often muse that Water Protectors should replace the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts as youth civic organizations. Everyone should be a Water Protector.<\/p>\n

Cut Our Consumption <\/strong><\/p>\n

We can make a legislative agenda for renewable energy and jobs, but we need to cut our consumption. Time to starve the Wiindigo, and time to figure out how to survive. Honestly, that\u2019s not so hard. Think about this: In the U.S. economy, some 66% of energy is \u201crejected\u201d in the system between point of production and point of consumption, with the two largest sectors of waste found in the transportation and industrial sectors. It’s time for negawatts<\/em>.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s failing infrastructure. Consider the leaking gas mains of Boston, the aging powerlines of Pacific Gas & Electric which brought us the Camp Fire inferno in California. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, the United States has a “D” in infrastructure, whether water or electrical. And that\u2019s a huge waste. No time like the present to get the bridges refurbished, put some people to work fixing messes, not making new messes. Efficiency creates 21.5 jobs for every $1 million invested.<\/p>\n

Energy Justice<\/strong><\/p>\n

Indigenous lands have provided a huge amount of energy to the U.S. and Canadian economies over the past hundred years, and the toll on Indigenous peoples has been devastating. Almost every mega-dam has flooded our best lands, our heartlands, changing how we relate to water. Those dams\u2014from James Bay and the Churchill River in Canada to the Columbia River Basin and Leech Lake in the United States\u2014have destroyed our territories and flooded our history. Two thirds of the uranium, one third of all western coal, the tar sands\u2013 they all lay to waste vast Indigenous territories. Energy justice<\/em> means that we are at the center of the next energy economy, but in different terms. Consider this: Nationally, tribal lands have an estimated 535 Billion kWh\/year of wind power generation potential, and an estimated 17,000 Billion kWh\/year of solar electricity generation potential\u2013 about 4.5 times total U.S. annual generation.<\/p>\n

If fossil fuels pipelines like the Dakota Access, Keystone, and Line 3 are about “energy security,” how about we put our money where our mouth is? The Dakota Access Pipeline is a $3.9 billion clusterfuck; Enbridge\u2019s Line 3 project is an even worse hemorrhage at $7 billion. That money could buy you a pipeline for a Canadian corporation to get some filthy tar sands oil to market<\/a> and bake the planet\u2013 or you could erect 580 two-megawatt wind turbines, install 716,000 five-kilowatt systems on that many homes, and retrofit another 283,000 homes for efficiency. That\u2019s<\/em> energy security.<\/p>\n

Getting local on energy\u2014from micro grids to solar gardens\u2014brings the economic benefit of energy projects back to the community. Each megawatt of installed community solar generates $l.87 million of total economic impact during construction operation\u00a0 and maintenance.<\/p>\n

Gluttons are We<\/strong><\/p>\n

How baffling is it that we waste 40% of our food in America? Not only do we move it 1,400 miles from farmer to table, on average, but we slather it full of fossil fuels all the way through (from everything ending with “-cide” that we put on it; pesticides, fungicides herbicides\u2013 all using the same suffix as homicide, suicide, and genocide). Add to that the packaging of food, and it\u2019s obvious we are choking ourselves on oil. Time for a diet.<\/p>\n

Eat Well, Local and Organic<\/strong><\/p>\n

Organic agriculture sequesters carbon and rebuilds topsoil. Organic agriculture on a worldwide scale could sequester up to a quarter of the carbon. It’s estimated that since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, more than a quarter of all carbon added to the atmosphere has come from plowing, which speeds up the decomposition of the soil organic matter and exposes soil to wind and rain (thereby increasing erosion).<\/p>\n

Major corporations like Monsanto and Syngenta talk about “climate smart” crop varieties they are introducing. They are spending billions of dollars on this: $136 million is the average amount to develop climate smart seeds per species<\/em>. In the meantime, Indigenous nations worldwide are adapting our pre-petroleum varieties to the times ahead. Combined, Indigenous farmers are producing today 70% of the world\u2019s food. Might want to stick with the ancient, time-tested wisdom of food.<\/p>\n

The Creator’s Law and the Law of Men<\/strong><\/p>\n

On December 31, 2018, the White Earth Anishinaabe recognized the Rights of Manoomin, or Wild Rice, following an international tradition recognizing the Rights of Nature. Bolivia was among the first countries to enshrine those rights into their constitution, and it should be noted that their President, Evo Morales, is himself Indigenous. We must clearly transform our legal institutions so that they reflect survival. The regulatory systems have been hijacked by corporate profiteers. The rights of Mother Earth must supersede the rights of corporations.<\/p>\n

Noongom (Today)
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

None of us are sure how the next thirty years will go, but we are sure that they will be full of sorrow, fear, and also joy. I\u2019ve always refused to watch “The Walking Dead” on TV, because that is not my world\u2013 my world, transformed and reborn, is ahead. Each economic sector of this country (or of North America for those of us who do not believe in invisible borders created by colonial powers) can be transformed.<\/p>\n

I once sat in Sitka, Alaska, and watched a cruise ship turn a 180 on a dime. No kidding. That\u2019s what we need to do. That\u2019s why you need a Green New Deal, a new Marshall Plan\u2013 or, the Sitting Bull Plan. Canada\u2019s version is called the LEAP Manifesto and has elements similar to the Green New Deal, although I might call it the Poundmaker Manifesto\u2013 in honor of political and spiritual leaders who have not been recognized by Canada (like Pitikwahanapiwiyin, leader of the Poundmaker Cree Nation).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time for an Indigenous paradigm, and a restorative economy. Gross National Product is not Gross National Happiness\u2013 not at the present or intergenerationally. It is clearly time to think intergenerationally and about justice and peace. This is between ourselves and our relatives and our Mother Earth. Our prophecies and instructions give some clear guidance on restoration of that covenant. Now is the time. Light the Fire.<\/p>\n

image credit<\/a><\/p>\n

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Winona LaDuke<\/strong> is a rural development economist working on issues of economic, food, and energy sovereignty. She lives and works on the White Earth reservation in northern Minnesota, and leads several organizations including Honor the Earth<\/a>, Anishinaabe Agriculture Institute, Akiing, and Winona\u2019s Hemp. These organizations develop and model cultural-based sustainable development strategies utilizing renewable energy and sustainable food systems. She is an international thought leader in the areas of climate justice, renewable energy, and environmental justice. She is also a leader in the work of\u00a0 protecting Indigenous plants and heritage foods from patenting and genetic engineering. She has authored six books including; Recovering the Sacred<\/em>, All our Relations<\/em>, Last Standing Woman<\/em>, and her newest work, The Winona LaDuke Chronicles<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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