This is not to say that all American Indians are predisposed to protect natural resources. Such a positive stereotype, according to Ada Deer, director of the UW-Madison American Indian Studies Program and a national leader on Indian policy, is as unfair and can be as damaging as more negative stereotypes. <

"Not every single Indian out there reveres and respects the land," Deer said. <

The positive stereotype of Indians being the ultimate environmentalists, Deer added, has also caused some to mistakenly lump traditional American Indians in with those conservationists who want to leave forests and other landscapes untouched. This is a misreading of the Indian approach to managing natural resources, Deer said, because tribes do manage forests and hunt game and grow crops such as rice; they simply do it with an eye toward the future and toward protecting resources. <

Tribal members say that when they think about how they live on the earth, they consider how their actions will be thought of seven generations into the future. They call this "living for the seventh generation" and it is a poetic summary of their approach to conservation. <

This utilitarian approach to conservation is actually more compelling and more instructive than any stereotype. In reservations across northern Wisconsin and Minnesota, the old reverence for the earth is being combined with the use of modern technologies such as global positioning systems and cutting edge practices to manage forests and lakes and wetlands. It's all a long way from the old cliches - such as the old advertisement against littering in which an Indian stands on a polluted lake, a tear running from his eye. In reality, tribal conservation grows from the practical use of natural resources and is informed by a deep respect for and understanding of the natural world that has long been a part of American Indian teachings. <

Winona LaDuke, a White Earth Chippewa from northern Minnesota, has written extensively of American Indians and their husbandry of natural resources. She frequently spoke on the subject during the last presidential campaign when she ran for vice president on the Green Party ticket with Ralph Nader. <

"I only know a little," wrote LaDuke, "but from what I know, I understand that our traditional society, our traditional view says that natural law is preeminent. Natural law is superior to the laws of nations, of states, of conservation officers, and of cities. In fact, it is superior to the laws of all humans. And we are all accountable to this natural law. <

"The Anishinabe (Chippewa) people, like other indigenous or land-based peoples, have tried to live in accordance with this law. Quite frankly, the example of the Anishinabe people, and other indigenous peoples, is the only continuous example of living sustainably on this land, on Turtle Island (a Chippewa name for the Earth). We hope there will be more." <

Proof of this can be found on reservations across Wisconsin. <

On the their reservation in northeastern Wisconsin, the Menominee have practiced sustainable forestry since the mid-1800s and have the numbers to prove it. Early timber records show that about 1.5 billion board feet stood on the reservation in 1865. Since then, roughly 2 billion board feet of lumber has been cut from the forest. Yet, the latest tribal inventories show 1.5 billion board feet remain in the forest after more than a century of logging; few other state, county or national forests in Wisconsin can compare. <

Or consider wild rice. In many places this fragile plant has all but disappeared, a victim of pollution or of dams that have flooded ancient rice beds, such as those that now rest beneath the waters of the Chippewa Flowage, near Hayward in northwest Wisconsin. <

But one can go to places on several of Wisconsin's reservations and see rice beds nearly as extensive as they once were. At Bad River on Lake Superior, the rice beds are an emerald sea that, in some spots in the wilds of the Kakagon and Bad River Sloughs, spread almost to the horizon. There and on other reservations, such as Mole Lake, near Crandon, rice remains a central part of the culture and the economy. Every fall the rice is harvested in canoes and each spring, care is taken to seed the beds to assure rice for future generations. <

On other reservations, including Lac du Flambeau in north central Wisconsin, and Lac Court Oreilles, in northwestern Wisconsin, far-sighted regulations, including shoreline protection laws, have left lakes cleaner than many off-reservation lakes and created thriving fisheries that are enjoyed by Indians and non-Indians alike. <

Such sustainability - the practice of using a resource in a way that protects it for future generations - is not unusual on Wisconsin's reservations. There are a couple of reasons for this, according to those who study American Indians and conservation. <

The first is pretty straightforward. On reservations, where poverty was the rule before the advent of tribal gambling, lakes and forests provided food in the form of venison and fish. They still do. <

LaDuke, who is a member of the White Earth reservation in Minnesota, writes of a study conducted there that showed a remarkable dependence on the land for food and for a livelihood. The survey showed that over 75 percent of tribal members kill one or more deer each year; 65 percent kill ducks, geese or small game; 35 percent catch 25 or more fish each year; 45 percent harvest wild rice either for their own use or for sale, as well as berries and or medicines. <

In addition, LaDuke said, 72 percent of the tribal members grow gardens, 58 percent had made maple sugar, and more than 45 percent produced handicrafts for their own use and for sale. <

Similar percentages can probably be found on most reservations elsewhere in Minnesota and in Wisconsin, LaDuke said. "Overall," she concluded, "in many native communities the traditional land-based economy, and in fact this way of life, remains a centerpiece of the community." <

In Wisconsin, others said, reservation land has always provided Indian people with food and clothing and medicines. <

Alan Caldwell, a Menominee and director of the tribe's culture institute, said most tribal members still rely on the forest for food. <

"One of the things that has sustained us as a people is our forest," said Caldwell. "It provides us with shelter, food, medicine. It provides us with everything we need." <

But beyond these practical reasons for taking care of forests and lakes, the Chippewa and other tribes also point to their cultural and spiritual beliefs, which inform and guide their care for the landscapes on which they live. <

In his book on Chippewa, or Ojibway (the name the Chippewa use when referring to themselves), spirituality, "The Mishomis Book," Edward Benton Banai expands on these ideas and writes, also, of how in the American Indian view of the natural world, humans are but part of the whole and so have a responsibility to all other living things, whether plant or animal." <

"They understood," Banai wrote, "that they belonged to the Four Levels of the Earth: the Mother Earth, the plant life, the animal life, and the human beings. In this chain, the human beings were last to come. It was understood that human life could not survive without any of the preceding levels, while the other levels could survive very easily without the human beings. <

"It is important for us to remind ourselves of our place in the Universe. We are but a small part." <

Winona LaDuke explained that American Indian conservation practice comes partly from the spiritual view of a living, animate world. <

"This is reflected," LaDuke wrote in an essay called "Indigenous Mind," "in our language, in which most nouns are animate. The word for corn is animate; tree is animate; rice, rock and stone are animate. Natural things are alive, they have spirit." <

Such humility is in striking contrast to the traditional European attitude toward the natural world, which has most often been utilitarian. History tells us, for example, that the earliest white settlers saw the immense forest stretching from the East Coast to the Mississippi River as an obstacle to be overcome and tamed. In another essay, LaDuke said a perception of "man's mastery of nature" dominates the value system of many Americans. In other words, many Americans think of the earth as something to conquer. <

It is only when one spends time on the reservations and listens to the tribal people and sees how their beliefs translate into practice that such cultural differences become apparent. <

Deer told of being on a Pueblo reservation in the West and of spending time with an elder, a man who would awake in the morning, walk into the desert and offer tobacco for the day and for the landscape. Deer was struck by the naturalness of the act and its sincerity. <

"He just did this matter of fact," Deer said, "like we would brush our teeth. If you hang around Indians a lot, you see this." <

George Meyer, former secretary of the Department of Natural Resources, said that what is most impressive on the reservations is how belief becomes practice. It can be seen, he said, in the healthy walleye lakes, the productive forests and the rice beds. <

Meyer, as a DNR lawyer working on treaty rights issues 10 years ago, was new to tribal ways. But he learned quickly, he said, that the American Indian approach to sustainable conservation was deeply rooted and very effective. <

"You can see this by what is happening on the reservations," Meyer said. "And it isn't just a preservation mentality. It is one where, in fact, there is utilization of the resources, but with an eye toward the future. <

"This is cultural. It comes from the fact that it was a matter of subsistence for them. More than that, it is religious." <

Others familiar with American Indian conservation agree and also add that the reservations offer valuable lessons and an insight into a way of living on and caring for the earth that non-Indians would do well to study. <

"It is different working for the tribes," said Peter David, a non-Indian biologist who works with the tribes doing research on rice. "I mean just starting a meal with a pipe ceremony is something. <

"To me, it's made me a better biologist. The folks I work for really do think about the resources differently. It makes me think really hard about the culture as much as the biology." <

Tribal members would be the last to boast of their accomplishments in natural resource management. But, increasingly, agencies such as the DNR and the U.S. Forest Service are taking notice of everything from forestry practices to fish management on Wisconsin's reservations. <

So, as the North Woods continues to deal with threats from commercial and residential development, it might be that new ideas for protecting this important part of Wisconsin will be found in places such as the forest of the Menominee or the lakes of the Lac du Flambeau. <

Perhaps the green and wild reaches of what is left of the original, ancient native homelands offer knowledge that will help us all. <