It's time to transition beyond our fossil fuel addiction to a just economy based on green jobs, renewable energy, and local organic food.

If we build a society based on honoring the earth, we build a society which is sustainable, and has the capacity to support all life forms.

Power is not brute force and money; power is in your spirit. Power is in your soul. It is what your ancestors, your old people gave you. Power is in the earth; it is in your relationship to the earth.

What our Seventh Generation will have is a consequence of our actions today.

Brothers and Sisters: Our ancient homeland is spotted today with an array of chemical dumps. Along the Niagara River, dioxin, a particularly deadly substance, threatens the remaining life there and in the waters which flow from there. Forestry departments spray the surviving forests with powerful insecticides to encourage tourism by people seeking a few days or weeks away from the cities where the air hangs heavy with sulphur and carbon oxides.

Ojibwe prophecy speaks of a time during the seventh fire when our people will have a choice between two paths. The first path is well worn and scorched. The second path is new and green. It is our choice as communities and as individuals how we will proceed.

I’m not a patriot to a flag, I’m a patriot to a land.