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Sustainable Development Institute Way

Sustainable Development Institute represents a centerpiece of the College’s mission and curriculum as a reflection of the Menominee experience as forerunners to what today is referred to as sustainability and sustainable development. That experience is best described as the process of responding to shifting ideologies about, and external pressures to, their forested homelands, and successfully negotiating their oversight of those lands in a manner consistent with their own cultural premises. Our rubric encompasses Sustaining the Nation, Sustaining the Spirit, and Sustaining the Forest. For millennia, indigenous people like the Menominee, practiced sustainable ways of life based on instructions they received from the Creator and their ancestors. The essence of sustainable living was based on the understanding that human beings were only part of the natural order of life on this Mother Earth, and relied on a life for survival.

• Sustaining the Nation – means sustaining our nation, our community, our people, and all life
• Sustaining the Forest – means sustaining our Menominee tradition of respect for the land and sharing our understandings of the social, ecological, and ethical practices and responsibilities to our natural environment
• Sustaining the Spirit – means sustaining our indigenous spirit, to appreciate indigenous perspectives, to appreciate the role of indigenous knowledge and ways of learning, and to identify opportunities for integrating relevant aspects of indigenous knowledge