Living for the seventh generation


Growing season took longer than usual to come this year, but it came nevertheless! There are few things that are as stimulating, calming and grounding than to stick one's hands into freshly made dirt, rich with organic matter, and watch as your fruit trees, berry bushes and veggie beds deliver you a delicious bounty.

Something drew me to traditional growing techniques years ago when I began to study native culture. I was always fascinated by the Confederacy of the Iroquois and their Great Law of Peace, Gayanahshagowa, developed more than 1,000 years ago, whose symbol was a great white pine.

The tree had four white roots of truth that reached in the four directions of the world. And the Creator instructed the people to follow the root to its source in order to come under the protection of the Great Law of Peace and the great long leaves of the great tree.

Decision-making was required to take into consideration the seventh generation, ensuring that those generations that were at their mercy (since they weren't here yet to consult with) were also protected.

This philosophy has everything to do with how we govern, how we grow and how we view stewardship of our land. The Cherokee and the Iroquois, as well as other traditional farmers, developed a sophisticated, sustainable system that provided long-term soil fertility and a healthy diet to generations.

The "three sisters" concept came from this philosophy, a tradition of interplanting corn, beans and squash in the same mounds. In doing this, each plant provides nutrients or support that enable each to thrive. Corn provides a natural pole for bean vines to climb, while beans fix nitrogen onto corn's roots, thereby improving the overall fertility of the plot. Shallow-rooted squash vines become a living mulch, shading emerging weeds and preventing soil moisture from evaporating, thereby improving the overall crops chances of survival in dry years. Spiny squash plants also help to discourage predators from approaching the corn and beans. Use of companion plants and "plant guilds" are the foundation for sustainable agricultural design.

What also stirred my interest in researching Native American history was my desire to understand how it was possible that our American Founders adopted the philosophies of Rousseau, Locke and Hume, yet were not influenced by the examples of homegrown democracy in their midst among the indigenous people they saw every day. I pored over hundreds of pages written by our nation's Founders and hit pay dirt when I began to read Benjamin Franklin's work.

Franklin was a great admirer of Native American society, particularly the Six Nations Confederacy of the Iroquois. He also made a good living reprinting Iroquois speeches and treaties and selling them back in Europe. What particularly caught his eye was their Congress-like council, their government based on checks and balances, the protection of freedom of speech and how women were granted the power to choose officeholders, preceding our Constitution by more than 300 years.

Franklin wanted to see the colonies develop a similar union, and in 1754 he created the Albany Plan of Union, a formative effort to establish a new government mirroring the Iroquois Great Law of Peace. The Plan of Union is considered the basis for the Articles of Confederacy, one of the founding documents of our nation.

What links together Iroquois notions of governance, farming and stewardship is the Great Law of the Iroquois that states, "In every deliberation, we must consider the impact on the seventh generation ... even if it requires having skin as thick as the bark of a pine."

Can you imagine if we lived our lives today with an eye to the seventh generation? We might look at deeds to land differently. Rather than a license to do anything we wish without regard to its consequences, we might view a deed as a way to honor the future by protecting our land since no one's making more of it and its sanctity is critical for the health of our children's children's children.

It might mean re-evaluating our energy policies from mountaintop removal for coal, deep-sea drilling for oil, fracking, nuclear power and tar sands given the considerable damage these methods will likely cause future generations. It's not that we wouldn't do any of these things — we might just do them differently.

If we cared about the seventh generation, then protection of fresh water, clean air and healthy food would likely be a primary concern, giving us greater pause when large-scale development was planned that would affect the value of the land, our streams and the rural character of our community.

Living for the seventh generation would likely mean developing a body of rules and oversight of private activity so that we balance the potential damage caused by private greed with the greater good. We use all manner of excuses to justify loosening the reins on greed — if we don't, we'll hurt jobs and the economy — thereby turning greed into religion, a political goal into a god.

When we look for guidance on growing food, securing our communities and governing our nation, the Iroquois and the Cherokee have much to offer. Just as soil prospers when companion plants are planted together, accentuating each other for the good of the many, so will our community prosper when we find a way to value our land, our neighbors and ourselves with an eye to the future.



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