What kind of ancestor do you want to be? / edited by John Hausdoerffer, Brooke Parry Hecht, Melissa K. Nelson, and Katherine Kassouf Cummings.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- Poem: Unsigned Letter to a Human in the 21st Century / Jamaal May -- I. Embedded: Our ancestral responsibility is deeply rooted in a multigenerational relationship to place. -- a. Poem: Great Granddaddy / Taiyon Coleman -- b. Essays: i. Ancestor of Fire / Aaron A. Abeyta -- ii. Grounded / Aubrey Streit Krug -- iii. My Home / It’s Called the Darkest Wild / Sean Prentiss -- c. Interview: Wendell Berry / Leah Bayens -- d. Poem: To the Children of the 21st Century / Frances H. Kakugawa -- II. Reckoning: Reckoning with ancestors causing and ancestors enduring historical trauma. -- a. Poem: Forgiveness? / Shannon Gibney -- b. Essays: / / i. Sister’s Stories / Eryn Wise -- ii. Of Land and Legacy / Lindsay Lunsford -- iii. Cheddar Man / Brooke Williams -- iv. Formidable / Kathleen Dean Moore -- c. Interview: Caleen Sisk / Brooke Parry Hecht and Toby McLeod -- d. Poem: Promises, Promises / Frances H. Kakugawa -- III. Healing: Enhancing some ancestral cycles while breaking others. -- a. Poem: To Future Kin / Brian Calvert -- b. Essays: / / i. Moving with the Rhythm of Life / Katherine Kassouf Cummings -- ii. (A Korowai) For When You Are Lost / Manea Sweeney -- iii. To Hope of Becoming Ancestors / Princess Daazhraii Johnson and Julianne Warren -- c. Interview: Camille T. Dungy and Crystal Williams -- d. Poem: Yes I Will / Frances H. Kakugawa -- IV. Interwoven: Our descendants will know the kind of ancestor we are by reading the lands and waters where we lived. -- a. Poem: Alive in This Century / Leora Gansworth -- b. Essays: / / i. What Is Your Rice? / John Hausdoerffer -- ii. Restoring Indigenous Mindfulness within the Commons of Human Consciousness / Jack Loeffler -- iii. Reading Records with Estella Leopold / Curt Meine -- iv. How to Be Better Ancestors / Winona LaDuke -- c. Interview: Wes Jackson / John Hausdoerffer and Julianne Lutz Warren -- d. Poem: Omoiyare / Frances H. Kakugawa -- V. Earthly: Other-than-human beings are our ancestors, too. -- a. Poem: LEAF / Elizabeth Herron -- b. Essays: / / i. The City Bleeds Out (Reflections on Lake Michigan) / Gavin Van Horn -- ii. I Want the Earth to Know Me as a Friend / Enrique Salmón -- iii. The Apple Tree / Peter Forbes -- iv. Humus / Catroina Sandilands -- v. Building Good Soil / Robin Kimmerer -- c. Interview: Vandana Shiva / John Hausdoerffer -- d. Poem: Your Inheritance / Frances H. Kakugawa -- VI. Seventh Fire -- a. Poem: Time Traveler / Lyla June Johnston -- b. Essays: / / i. Seeds / Native Youth Guardians of the Waters 2017 Participants and Nicola Wagenberg -- ii. Onëö’ (Word for Corn in Seneca) / Kaylena Bray -- iii. Landing / Oscar Guttierez -- iv. Regenerative / Melissa K. Nelson -- v. Nourishing / Rowen White -- vi. Light / Rachel Wolfgramm and Chellie Spiller -- c. Interview: Ilarion Merculieff / Brooke Parry Hecht -- d. Poem: Lost in the Milky Way / Linda Hogan -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- About the Contributors -- Index.

"What Kind of Ancestor Do You Want to Be? challenges our relationship to the environment and to each other, not only now but across generations. It is an important question for our time, when communities have become fragmented by a global consumer society, when our selves have become isolated in a competitive and technology-driven economy, and when our spiritual, social, and ecological impacts on human and other-than-human beings extend farther than ever imagined due to globalization and climate change. Through interviews and poetic snapshots into the experience of Indigenous people and others, this book demands that the reader think about how contemporary concerns oblige us to see ourselves as someone's future ancestor and, in turn, creates for the reader a different way of looking at his or her traditions and self"-- Provided by publisher.