Seventh Generation Earth Ethics

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Native Voices of Wisconsin

Patty Loew

Compelling profiles of a dozen individuals from the Native nations in Wisconsin who have made vital contributions to the sustainability and culture of our communities.

240 pages, 6 x 9, 23 b&w photos
Hardcover: $45.00 | ISBN: 978-0-87020-674-0
Paperback: $22.95 | ISBN: 978-1-9766-0073-9
Ebook: $15.99 | ISBN: 978-0-87020-675-7
Publication Date: 9/8/2014; paperback edition: 8/26/2025

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Cover of Seventh Generation Earth Ethics

Description

The vital traditions of valuing and respecting our natural world dates back centuries and even millennia with the Native peoples who have long inhabited the place we now call Wisconsin. These contributions to our understanding of nature and protecting the environment continue to this day. In this collection of twelve biographies, one from each of the Native nations in Wisconsin, author Patty Loew (Bad River Ojibwe) introduces readers to prominent and more recent figures in Native sustainability—people whose life’s work reflects the traditional ecological knowledge and cultural values of their people.

Born out of Loew’s thirty years as a journalist and historian, Seventh Generation Earth Ethics highlights key individuals who helped to sustain and nurture their nations' cultural and environmental traditions.

Walter Bresette, Red Cliff Ojibwe, community activist

Hilary Waukau, Menominee, environmental warrior

Frances Van Zile, Mole Lake (Sokaogon) Ojibwe, keeper of the water

James Schlender, Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe, treaty rights guardian

Jose Rose, Bad River Ojibwe, elder, environmentalist, and scholar

Dorothy Davids, Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of Mohican Indians, educator

William Gollnick, Oneida, culture keeper

Thomas St. Germaine, Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe, attorney

Truman Lowe, Ho-Chunk, organic sculpture artist

Jenny and Mary Thunder, Forest County Potawatomi, medicine women

Wanda McFaggen, St. Croix Ojibwe, Tribal Historic Preservationist

Caroline Andler, Brothertown Indian Nation, genealogist

The indigenous people whose lives are depicted in Seventh Generation Earth Ethics understood the cultural gravity that kept their people rooted to their ancestral lands and acted in ways that ensured the growth and success of future generations.

Author Bio

Patty Loew is a citizen of Mashkiiziibii (Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe) and grew up in Milwaukee. She is Professor Emerita in the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and former director of NU’s Center for Native American and Indigenous Research. Loew is also a documentary film producer and former broadcast journalist in public and commercial television. She is the author of several books, including Indian Nations of Wisconsin and the young readers’ edition, Native People of Wisconsin, which is used by tens of thousands of Wisconsin school children as a social studies textbook.

We Anishinaabeg believe that all humans are born with a special gift to benefit and serve our first mother, the Earth, and all living beings. Seven Generation Earth Ethics shares the biographies of twelve indigenous people whose lives provide pathways and inspiration for all to follow.

Lisa Poupart (Lac du Flambeau Anishinaabequay)

Associate professor of First Nations Studies, University of Wisconsin–Green Bay

“In Loew’s capable hands, these stories offer insight into the spiritual, ecological, and communal values of Native nations, into the cultural gravity that calls tribal people back to their home reservations, and into the Seventh Generation earth ethics that stand behind the grassroots movements founded by many of those featured in this volume.”

—Kimberly Blaeser (White Earth Ojibwe), author of Apprenticed to Justice and past Wisconsin Poet Laureate

“Patty Loew invites us to greet, sit down with, and stand alongside these Native activists, artists, educators, and healers who have shown us the way of making community with the land and with each other. These wonderfully told stories are for friends, allies, and all defenders of place and culture.”

—Rick Whaley, coauthor of Walleye Warriors: The Chippewa Treaty Rights Story

“By capturing the legacies of these inspiring and courageous people, Dr. Loew reminds us that history can be and indeed is made every day in our communities by those who remain true to indigenous ecological values and cultural sensibilities.”

—James E. Zorn, former executive administrator, Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission