To Be a Water Protector: The Rise of the Wiindigoo Slayers

And I o er them food and prayers.
ose are cool ancestors, great role
models.
my mother, the artist Betty LaDuke’s side, my family originates in the
On
Jewish farmers who became union workers in New York City. My
Ukraine.
grandfather had a windmill to grind wheat and was displaced by
great-great
burning of coal and the progress of new mills. My grandmother worked
the
the garment district and my grandfather worked as a house painter.
in
Decent people. Courageous, humble, sensible people.
ere’s something
about that
imprint which maybe reminds me of where their journeys
them. Some days, I feel I continue their journey or see, perhaps, my
took
continue those journeys.
children
I re ect on the question of how to be good ancestors, I re ect on
As
accountability. How do I account for my behaviors and
intergenerational
to my ancestors and to my descendants?
decisions
is easier for some of us than others. America does not stay in
is
Akiing. Privileged by the fossil fuel economy, which has put all
Anishinaabe
on steroids, we are transient, we move. Few people live in the same
things
as their ancestors, and many more of us have historical amnesia.
place
always trying to run away from what we’ve done, so amnesia
We’re
becomes the coping mechanism.
en we continue in our anthropocentric
thinking we are kings and continuing as slave holders. Ecological
world,
holders that is. Not knowing history has huge perils. Ecological
slave
is when we forget what was there, complicated by all of this
amnesia
transience.
means that we do not come to know and love a place; we move
Transience
and as such are not accountable to that place. Always looking for greener
on,
a new frontier, I fear we lose depth, and a place loses its humans
pastures,
would sing to it, gather the precious berries, make clean the paths and
who
the waters.
protect
on a worldwide scale, Indigenous Peoples represent about 4%
Remember,
of the world’s people, but we live with 80% of the world’s biodiversity.
at’s
worth
ghting for. My counsel is stay, make this place your home and
this land like a patriot.
defend
look to minobimaatisiiwin, the excellent life o ered to the Anishinaabeg
I
the Creator. In this life, the basic teachings are elegant and resonant: care
by
yourself, the land and your relatives. Remember that this world is full of
for