No, I haven't given up writing for this blog, but yes, I'm sending you elsewhere again today. What are your interests and concerns? Because you know what mine are, and this interview with Winona LaDuke touches on so many of them I don't want to excerpt from what she says, because it's all worth reading.
I'm very happy that Northport's summer Farmers Market has grown to be one of the most successful in Leelanau County. Northport has a new wind turbine, too, leading the way in Leelanau County for its investment in renewable, self-sufficient energy. As important as either of these initiatives, in my view, is the fact that recent local meetings looking to the future are bringing back together white and Native American community members. This is particularly important given Northport's unique history, the community having been founded by Chief Peter Waukazoo and Reverend George Smith.
There is a long way to go, but every journey begins with the first steps.
3 comments:
Check out this site:
Diversity Foundation
for information about another community's efforts to welcome back and reconcile with descendants of the Natives that were kicked out in the mid-19th century.
What a great read, Pamela! Thank you for sharing it. Here is the part I liked best:
"The word for “work” is a strange construct for us. It doesn’t mean we aren’t a hard-working people, but in our language, the word is anokii, which means that whether you are fishing or weaving a basket, what you are doing is living—which is not the same thing as being paid a wage to do something."
Fascinating...
Thanks for the link, dmarks. Kathy, those ideas about work were important to me, too. Work that is integral to one's life, to one's own deepest identity and/or to one's place in a community, rather than work to which one must "commute" from self, community, and identity--the latter spells alienation, the former LIFE!
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