This may be the first Ahnishinahbæótjibway
book, but it must not be the last.
There are other Ahnishinahbæótjibway
writers, men as
well as women, who know their own language, and can also speak and
write in
fluent English, and who have something extremely important to say. There are Aboriginal Indigenous writers
coming world-wide, and what they have to say is critical for all of the
people
of Grandmother Earth, from all of the ancient and profound philosophies
of the
Aboriginal Indigenous peoples of this world.
Our understanding of the world, our
Aboriginal Indigenous thought has never been translated.
There have been a handful of Western
Europeans who have transcended their language and enculturation, but
the vast
majority of the peoples of Western European Civilization have not been
able to
look beyond their own world-view.
Both the Aboriginal Indigenous
peoples, and our languages, are endangered.
The answer is not paternalism--helping us to "adapt" to a
changing world; but to look at why, and in what directions, the world
is
changing, and whose choices are generating those changes.
There need to be checks and balances
in Western European thought. The
abundant permaculture, the magnificent forests, the pristine waters and
the
multitude of other beings who lived in harmony with Ahnishinahbæótjibway
and other Aboriginal Indigenous people, are the embodiment of our
language, our
culture, our egalitarian values, and our thought and our ways of life. Western European civilization has had five
hundred years on this Continent, to prove the "superiority" that they
asserted when they first came here. The
ecosystem is shattered, their cities are ripped by violence, and the
American
Dream has always been an illusion for many.
Many more, like the American farmer, touched the dream for a
brief
moment, only to have it slip away, and then it was gone.
If there is to be hope for anybody
in the future, we have to work together to recreate a network of
harmonious
societies which provide for all people.
More than a hundred years ago, Bishop Whipple said, "this is a
crisis in your history; there are two paths before you, the one path
leads to
life and the other path leads to death."[i] The
Western Europeans and other civilized
peoples are standing at that place now, where two very different paths
are
before them. Their decision is no
longer up to them alone, because the consequences affect everybody. We must all find a way to work harmoniously
together, to create a balanced world for the generations yet to come.
[i].August
17 1886, Minnesota Chippewa Commission
presentations at Red Lake, in Message from the President of the
United
States, transmitting Communication from the Secretary of the Interior,
with
papers relating to the Chippewa Indians in Minnesota, United States
Senate,
49th Congress, 2d Session, Executive Document No. 115, Op. cit.,
page
84.
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