A fundamental ethic of Eastern Woodlands Indigenous nations since their origins in the time before time unto today is to establish, practice, and maintain Communal Ethics. The intent of an ethic that centralizes the community is to bring the whole of life into the kinship networks of this world. These kinship networks include human beings, animals, Mother Earth, the plants, waters, stars, mosses...every one. We do not say every "thing" because the members of the biosphere are not "things". The entire biosphere contains a multiplicity of beings, not objects. These beings are sacred. They have purpose, destiny, intelligence, consciousness, and are spirit-filled, just like the human beings.
To Native American/First Nations people, the Community traditionally means everyone--human beings with all various skin tones, any gender identity, any sexual orientation, any physical and intellectual ability level and the whole non-human world. Personal responsibility that supported the nation was key in the Eastern Woodlands nations, not personal aggrandizement, personal specialness, or setting oneself apart from the nation. Personal responsibility and developing one's mind, spiritual awareness, and talents and skills to strengthen the nation were and still are a strong ethic. In the northeastern nations, opinions were given an open hearing without censure in the councils. Indeed, Consensus Decision-Making originated with the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) League.
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