I have read many books into Native America Indians with a heavy burden of misconceptions and stereotypes gleaned from history books,movie Westerns, and popular myths ingrained in the psyche from an earlier "Manifest Destiny" mentality.

What I thought was to "discover" turned out to be far different from what I found. I uncovered no "secrets;' no soul-bewitching gurus, no miraculous healers, no hitherto unknown sacred ceremonies. Life itself, I learned, is a sacred ceremony.

From the Wisdomkeepers I learned a different way of thinking, which profoundly affected my views about the Earth, about sovereignty, about family and community, and about the future. -:-

The future, I learned, was not some abstract, untouchable "Beyond" far out there some­where, beyond our ken. Rather, the Wisdomkeepers taught me, the future is with us here today, in the Now and Here. It's coming up, in fact, right behind us.

Over and over I was told: Turn around and look, there they are, the Seventh Generation-they're coming up right behind you. "Look over your shoulder," Tadodaho Leon~Shenandoah told me. Look behind you. See your sons and your daughters. They are your future. Look farther, and see your sons' and your daughters' children and their childrens' children even unto the Seventh Generation. That's the way we were taught. Think about it: you yourself are a Seventh Generation!"

This immediate and compassionate approach to the future was a revelation to me, moving me from a mental position to which I can never return. I came to realize that we ourselves, in all of our decisions-individually and collectively-are responsible for, and to,the generations"whose faces are coming from beneath the ground." They will soon be walking the same earthly path we walk today,and we must ensure that there is a path to walk. We hope that we'll leave a better path than the one left to us."