Our Responsibility To the Seventh Generation

Linda Clarkson, Vern Morrissette and Gabriel Régallet
International Institute for Sustainable Development, Winnipeg, 1992 (excerpt)

There is a teaching passed down from our ancestors that crystallizes our sense of responsibility and our relationship to the earth that arises out of the original law. It is said that we are placed on the earth (our Mother) to be the caretakers of all that is here. We are instructed to deal with the plants, animals, minerals, human beings and all life, as if they were a part of ourselves. Because we are a part of Creation, we cannot differentiate or separate ourselves from the rest of the earth. The way in which we interact with the earth, how we utilize the plants, animals and the mineral gifts, should be carried out with the seventh generation in mind. We cannot simply think of ourselves and our survival; each generation has a responsibility to "ensure the survival for the seventh generation". Indigenous people are the poorest of the poor and the holders of the key to the future survival of humanity.