More than a thousand years ago, the Anishanaabe peoples lived in peace and abundance on the east coast of North America. The land was fertile, teeming with food and everything else they could possibly want for a rich and satisfying life. The people were healthy and happy, and very content to stay just where they were. Why would they want to leave this Eden on Earth?

Then unexpectedly, not just one but seven prophets appeared. These prophets delivered seven world-shaking prophecies, prophecies that told of times that would be the complete reverse of the peoples’ peaceful abundant life, speaking as they did about terrifying times to come.

Appropriately, the prophets called each of their prophecies a Fire. Each Fire described a particular era in the future of the Anishanaabe.

The first prophet told them in no uncertain terms that if they stayed where they were, they would be destroyed. To avoid this fate, they were to make a great migration to a place, as yet unknown, where food grows on water. The second and third prophets then gave some welcome details of the migration itself, how they would be guided, and how they would recognize their new homeland.

The Fourth Fire was given by two prophets who came as one, and who had an even more extraordinary message. They told of the coming of a light-skinned race. To people who had only ever seen humans of a darker hue, this must have seemed barely believable. But they listened and recorded this prophecy in their oral traditions as they did with the other six prophecies.

The Fourth Fire told of two different futures for the Anishanaabe, and that they would know which future was to unfold by the particular face worn by the light-skinned race. If the light-skinned people came with the face of brotherhood, then the two races would merge to make one mighty nation. But if they came with the face of death, bearing weapons, then the Anishanaabe should beware, because these light-skinned people would have greed in their hearts for the riches of the land, and would poison the rivers and kill all the fish, making it impossible to live as they had.

The fifth prophet told the Anishanaabe that the time of the Fifth Fire would be an era of terrible struggle for them. He prophesied that towards the end of this difficult time, a false promise of joy and salvation would be given. He warned that this false promise, while very tempting, would cause the near destruction of all who embraced it. He prophesied that if they were to accept this promise and turn away from the old ways, then the struggle of the Fifth Fire would continue for many generations to come.

The Sixth Fire continued on from the Fifth, with an even more ominous warning. The sixth prophet told the people that all those deceived by the false promise would in their blindness take their children away from the traditional teachings of the elders. The elders would lose their reason for living and a new sickness would appear. The balance of many would be disturbed and many would die.

When the prophet of the Seventh Fire appeared, he was different from those who had come before. He was young, and had a strange light in his eyes, perhaps a reflection of the hopefulness of his words. At last it seemed as though the Anishanaabe might recover some of their ancient ways and their reason for living. The seventh prophet told of the emergence of a New People who would try to retrace the Anishanaabe’s steps and find the elders who could guide them on this quest. This would be a difficult task as many elders would no longer have anything of value to offer. But if the New People remained strong in their determination, there would be a rebirth of the Anishanaabe nation and a rekindling of the old ways.

The seventh prophet also said that at this time the light-skinned people would be given a choice between two roads, the burned and blackened road, or the green and fertile road. If they chose the black road, the destruction they had brought to this country would turn back on them and cause great suffering and death, not just in North America but to all of peoples of the Earth.

However, if the light-skinned people chose the green road, the Seventh Fire would light the Eighth Fire. This would usher in an eternal fire of peace, love, brotherhood and sisterhood.

These prophecies caused much disbelief and discussion among the Anishanaabe, but it was finally decided that they would start moving westward in search of the land where food grows on water. This migration is thought to have taken about 500 years as they slowly trekked, generation by generation, from the east coast of the continent to the western end of the Great Lakes. However, many decided not to move, but to stay on the east coast, and many groups split off along the way.

Those who stayed on the east coast eventually became the first to encounter the light-skinned race and as prophesied, suffered the most. They were almost completely destroyed.

Thus the First Fire came to pass.

Those who followed the guidance of the second and third prophecies migrated all the way to the land where the wild rice grows on the water, and settled there peacefully for many generations. When the light-skinned people eventually appeared on their lands, they managed to hold onto their traditional ways of life for many decades, and although they were eventually greatly impacted by the light-skinned people, they were not entirely destroyed.

Thus the Second and Third Fires came to pass.

As we now know, at the time of the Fourth Fire, the light-skinned people most assuredly did not come in brotherhood. Tragically, the great nation of both races never came to pass. On the contrary, the light-skinned people came with endless weapons and a great lust in their hearts for the myriad riches of the land. They launched widespread military attacks on native people everywhere. They turned a terrible face of death towards the original peoples, who were ruthlessly massacred over the length and breadth of North America. And indeed, as prophesied, the ways of the light-skinned people have resulted in the polluting and poisoning of many parts of the Earth, including the rivers, and the killing of many animals, not just the fish.

Thus the Fourth Fire came to pass.

We also now know that the time of the Fifth Fire was, as prophesied, a time of desperate struggle for the Anishanaabe and all native peoples. Those few who were left were displaced, often hundreds of miles, to reservations where it was almost impossible to maintain the old ways. Just to survive, they had to accept government handouts of unfamiliar, unhealthy foods and inadequate shelter. Their independence and pride as a sovereign people was ruthlessly crushed.

It is thought that the false promise spoken of in the fifth prophecy was the promise of material riches for those who embraced the light-skinned way of life. Those who abandoned the ancient ways in favor of this new way were in fact a huge factor in the near-destruction of the native peoples.

Thus the Fifth Fire came to pass.

During the time of the Sixth Fire, the light-skinned people aimed to annihilate the old ways completely. After the genocide of the previous times came the attempted destruction of the spiritual and cultural worlds of the remaining native peoples. The light-skinned people attempted to assimilate all native peoples into their own ways and their own beliefs. This included imposing government control over the reservations where the native people lived, and forcibly removing native children from their parents, then sending them to boarding schools where they were forbidden to speak their native language or practice any native ceremonies. When these children returned to their reservations steeped in light-faced ways, they no longer listened to the elders, causing the elders to lose their purpose and fall ill with grief.

Thus the Sixth Fire came to pass.

After the near-destruction of the Anishanaabe and all things precious to them, we are now in the time of the Seventh Fire, and a small flame of hope has indeed finally emerged. As prophesied, a New People did begin to appear, starting in the mid-twentieth century. Both native and light-skinned people joined in the quest to recover the old ways. This is the first time in the history of the two races that the light-skinned people have approached the native people with respect and reverence for the ancient ways, asking to be initiated into those paths. The few elders who still remember the old ways have finally found their purpose as they teach the ancient beliefs and ceremonies to all who wish to hear. These teachings have attracted people from all over the world to partake in sweat lodges, practice the ceremonies of the Four Directions and honor the Earth and the Great Spirit.

There is now a growing cultural respect for the ancient wisdom that teaches that humans are one with the Earth, and that we must live in harmony with all other life. In many countries it is now recognized that indigenous peoples have a deep understanding of the ecosystems of their traditional lands, and can be far better caretakers and managers of those lands than the light-skinned people. As native people everywhere are starting to be recognized for their deep Earth wisdom, the Anishanaabe nation is starting to experience its prophesied rebirth, even though it is a painfully slow process.

As prophesied, even with the growing respect for indigenous ways, the light-skinned people are currently at a critical crossroads. They are faced with the choice of the two roads, the black and the green, and it is not at all clear which will be chosen. Will they choose to continue their habitual desecration of the Earth in the pursuit of material pleasures, or will they choose to live by the indigenous wisdom of care and respect for the Earth. As the effects of climate change create an escalating spiral of earthly destruction, this choice becomes more and more urgent with each passing season.

It seems that currently, the light-skinned people are painfully divided between the two roads. Many know that the only way to survive is to embrace a way of life that does not desecrate the Earth in the quest for an orgy of food, goods and energy. However, world governments are still focused on maintaining the material way of life, and still giving huge subsidies to the fossil fuel companies that have been primary in destroying the natural life-support systems. Ordinary people cannot make the enormous shift needed without the full support of their ruling class, and that support shows few signs of being forthcoming. There are small shifts of course, but the dominant paradigm is still dominant. The road to death and destruction is still being chosen.

We don’t yet know which road will eventually be taken by the light-skinned race, but it’s looking more and more likely that, even if it were to immediately make a wholesale shift to the road of respect for the Earth, much death and destruction is already baked into the future. We can no longer avoid it.

It may be that at some time yet to come, the light-skinned people will finally be able to choose the green road. However, this is only likely to happen after a great dying of much life on Earth, with humanity being brought to a state of bare survival, and from that place, recognizing that the only possible way to exist on Earth is to live in harmony with her, with all beings, and with each other. The tragic consequences of the materialistic way of life will be so horrifically clear that it will never again be attempted.

So it may be that not one but both roads of the seventh prophecy are eventually chosen. The light-skinned people will cling desperately to materialism until it is cruelly dashed from their grasp, and only then, deprived of all other options, will they choose the path of life.

It is not at all certain, but it may be that despite all current indications to the contrary, the Seventh Fire may finally ignite the Eighth Fire, the eternal fire of peace, love, brotherhood and sisterhood. But the way there will be one of great suffering.

 

Source

Edward Benton-Banai, The Mishomis Book: The Voice of the Ojibway