Tribal Presider Comments
Frank Ettawageshik, Tribal Chairman
Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians
Great Lakes Regional Collaboration, Summit II, Chicago, IL
December 12, 2005
I'd like to acknowledge our distinguished attendees today: Members of Congress, Tribal Leaders, Great Lakes Mayors, Federal Representatives from Executive Departments and Agencies, and many friends of the Great Lakes. I'd like to remind everyone that I speak today with the consent, and on behalf, of
the members of the Tribal Caucus for this Great Lakes Regional Collaboration. Either individually or through consortium, we have here today elected leaders or staff from many of the 35 Great Lakes Basin Tribal governments. The importance of this issue of water is certainly demonstrated by the presence of so many distinguished leaders from such a broad group of governments and organizations.
I am humbled to be able to be able to bring these words to such a group. Our children should not have to fear for their future. Our elders should no longer have to hear the cries of pain from Mother Earth. Over the past year I've spoken with Tribal and First Nation citizens and leaders from throughout the entire Great Lakes Basin: young people, elders, men and women, hunters, fishermen, farmers, dancers and storytellers, council members and chiefs, pipe carriers and other tradition bearers. What they have told me is that they fear for the water. They fear for their own survival and the survival of our people.
They also have told me that we are one with creation, that we have sacred duties to ourselves and to all those beings with whom we share this world. These duties are exemplified in our thoughts and actions towards each of the elements that make up this creation: represented by the physical, the spiritual, the emotional and the mental.
Through the work of hundreds of volunteers throughout the entire Great Lakes Basin a strategic plan for restoring and protecting the waters of the Great Lakes has been prepared. Do we all now breathe a sigh of relief? Do we now go home and get on with other matters? No. Our work has barely begun. This Strategic Plan that we offer today outlines and defines issues that we must work on. It also suggests ways by which we can address these issues. Quoting from the Executive Summary, "The Collaboration partners have rallied around a shared vision of a restored, sustainable Great Lakes ecosystem that has generated optimism and engendered a spirit of cooperation. What is needed now is the will to act and the leadership to proceed if we are to realize our vision and reach our goals. The time to begin is now."
The question of how to pay for the restoration after years of the effects of harmful actions has been raised. This certainly will be a challenge for governments at all levels. Listening to the myriad thoughts that have come together over the past year it would be easy to be overwhelmed. But the real issue that we need to face is first within ourselves, within our own hearts and minds.
Last December we signed the Great Lakes Declaration that started us on this shared journey. Today we sign a Resolution that acknowledges the work of the past year that created this Strategic Plan and moves us on to implementation. All of this plan and the hundreds of pages of appendices can be summed up as follows: If it is harmful, don't do it; if we are already doing it, then stop; if harm is coming from what we already have done, then we must undo it.
These are simple words, but they lead to great and complicated tasks.
The most difficult task however doesn't have to cost us any money. That task is one that is a challenge for everyone here, everyone who is listening to these words, and everyone who reads them in the future. Change yourself and your own life. Conserve water, respect the life that depends upon it, accept the fact that there are limits to our natural resources, demand that our businesses and governments adapt to these limits, and finally, celebrate the limitless potential that is within us all.
Posted by Dave at December 15, 2005 09:12 AM