September 8, 2026.
An Anishinaabe teaching about balance, connection and the responsibility to see the whole community.
For Anishinaabe people, the Medicine Wheel is more than a circle divided into four directions.
It is a teaching about relationships, balance, interconnectedness and the responsibilities people have to one another and to the world around them.
Those teachings can offer an important perspective when thinking about what it means for a First Nations government to serve its citizens — particularly when members live in different communities, states or even countries.
The central question is simple:
Does belonging to a First Nation depend upon where a citizen lives, or does the relationship continue wherever that citizen makes a home?
Anishinaabe teachings provide a framework for thinking about that question.
The whole wheel matters.
There are different Anishinaabe teachings about the Medicine Wheel, and the colors, directions and meanings can vary among Nations and communities.
One Ojibwe teaching shared by Elder Lillian Pitawanakwat describes the Medicine Wheel as including the Four Sacred Directions, along with Father Sky, Mother Earth and the self at the center. The teaching emphasizes that the parts of the wheel depend upon one another and that what affects one part affects the whole.
That concept of interconnectedness is important.
A circle does not have a favored side.
No direction exists independently of the others.
The Medicine Wheel is complete because its parts exist together.
Applied as a teaching about community, that can raise a powerful question:
Can a tribal community be considered whole when some of its citizens are treated as less connected simply because they live somewhere else?
That is a question of governance, but it is also a question of relationship.
Citizenship does not necessarily end at a geographic boundary.
Modern governments often organize services geographically.
A city provides services to people within its boundaries. A county serves residents within the county. A state government generally focuses on people who live within the state.
A First Nations government can have a different relationship with its citizens.
Tribal citizenship is a political and legal relationship. Citizens may live on tribal lands, in nearby communities, across their state or thousands of miles away.
Physical distance does not necessarily erase citizenship.
A citizen who moves for employment, education, military service, family responsibilities or other reasons does not necessarily cease being part of the Nation.
From an Anishinaabe perspective, the idea of relationship can provide another way of looking at that reality.
A person may be physically distant while remaining connected through family, clan, citizenship, culture, language, ceremony, community responsibilities and ancestral relationships.
The circle has no "outside" member.
The Medicine Wheel can also serve as a powerful metaphor for inclusion.
A circle has no natural corner.
Its parts work together.
If one section is removed, the circle is no longer whole.
Elder Lillian Pitawanakwat's Ojibwe teaching describes the Medicine Wheel in terms of balance and the importance of all its parts.
That does not mean the Medicine Wheel dictates how a tribal constitution must be written or how a tribal government must structure its services.
Those are matters of each Nation's laws, traditions and governmental authority.
But the teaching can encourage an important principle:
A healthy community considers the well-being of the whole rather than designing systems around only the people who are easiest to reach.
The Seven Grandfather Teachings reinforce the idea of responsibility.
The Medicine Wheel can also be considered alongside the Seven Grandfather Teachings, which are important Anishinaabe teachings about how to live a good life.
The Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians identifies the teachings as Wisdom, Love, Respect, Bravery, Truth, Humility and Honesty. Its cultural materials describe these teachings as guiding the Anishinaabeg toward ethical conduct.
Several of these teachings have particular relevance when considering public service.
Love asks people to practice kindness.
Respect calls for acting without harm.
Truth requires faithfulness to reality.
Humility teaches people not to place themselves above others.
Wisdom calls for good judgment.
Honesty requires truthfulness.
And Bravery requires the courage to make difficult choices.
Together, these teachings suggest that leadership is not simply about authority.
It is about responsibility.
Serving the whole community.
A tribal government has many responsibilities.
It may provide health care, housing, education, cultural programs, economic development, elder services, youth programs, infrastructure and other services.
But citizens do not necessarily live in one place.
Some may live within the Nation's traditional or current service area.
Others may live elsewhere because of work, education, housing, family circumstances or other reasons.
That creates a challenge for modern tribal governments:
How do you maintain a strong community when the community itself is geographically dispersed?
Technology can help.
Online services, voting systems, communications, cultural programming and remote access can connect citizens who live far away.
But technology is only part of the answer.
The larger issue is whether citizens who live away from the geographic center of a Nation continue to be recognized as full members of the community.
The center of the wheel.
Some Anishinaabe Medicine Wheel teachings include a center representing the self or spirit. Other teachings describe the center differently.
The important lesson is that the center is not necessarily another direction competing with the others.
It is where the relationships come together.
That can provide a useful metaphor for tribal leadership.
A government should not exist simply for one geographic area, one neighborhood, one generation or one segment of its citizens.
Its responsibility is to understand how decisions affect the whole community.
That does not mean every citizen must receive identical services.
Different communities have different needs.
An elder may need different services than a young family.
A citizen living on tribal lands may have different transportation needs from someone living hundreds of miles away.
A community with a tribal facility may require different infrastructure than a citizen who lives far from it.
Equality does not always mean identical services.
It can mean that every citizen's interests and rights are taken seriously.
Geography can describe where someone lives — not necessarily who they are.
One of the most important distinctions in discussions about tribal citizenship is the difference between location and belonging.
A map can tell us where a person lives.
It cannot necessarily tell us where that person comes from, what Nation they belong to, what family they are connected to or what responsibilities they carry.
For First Nations people, those relationships can extend across generations and across geographic boundaries.
Anishinaabe teachings emphasize relationships among people and the natural and spiritual worlds. The Medicine Wheel, in many teachings, represents interconnected parts of life rather than isolated pieces.
That provides a meaningful framework for considering tribal communities whose citizens are increasingly dispersed.
A Nation is more than a place on a map.
Modern tribal governments have geographic territories and service areas for very practical reasons.
Land provides a physical place for government offices, housing, health facilities, schools, cultural institutions and community programs.
But a Nation is also its people.
Families may move.
Children grow up away from their ancestral communities.
Young adults may leave for college.
Workers may relocate for employment.
Elders may move closer to family.
Citizens may establish homes in other states.
Yet the relationship with their Nation can continue.
This is one of the challenges facing First Nations governments in an increasingly mobile world.
The question is not whether geography matters.
It does.
The question is whether geography should become the measure of a citizen's importance.
The Medicine Wheel offers a different way of thinking.
The Medicine Wheel does not provide a simple political formula.
It does, however, offer a teaching about balance.
The parts belong together.
The directions are interconnected.
The seasons move in cycles.
Life moves through stages.
And the well-being of one part can affect the whole.
One Ojibwe teaching describes this relationship directly: what affects one part affects all, and balance requires respect for all parts.
For tribal leadership, that can be understood as a reminder that decisions should be considered from more than one perspective.
How does a decision affect elders?
How does it affect children?
How does it affect families living on tribal lands?
How does it affect citizens living away from the community?
How does it affect future generations?
And perhaps most importantly:
Does the decision strengthen or weaken the relationships that hold the Nation together?
The responsibility of leadership.
Leadership within a First Nations community is not simply the exercise of governmental authority.
It carries a responsibility to the people.
The Seven Grandfather Teachings provide a moral framework emphasizing qualities such as love, respect, wisdom, honesty, humility, truth and bravery.
Those values can challenge leaders to look beyond the easiest constituency to serve.
The people who live closest to government offices may be the easiest to hear from.
The people who attend local meetings may be the easiest to consult.
The people who live within a defined geographic area may be the easiest to reach.
But the people who live elsewhere are still citizens.
Their distance should not automatically make their voices less important.
A circle is strongest when every part is recognized.
The Medicine Wheel teaches balance.
It reminds us that different parts can have different characteristics while still belonging to one whole.
That provides a powerful metaphor for First Nations communities today.
Citizens may live in different places.
They may have different experiences.
They may have different needs.
They may speak different dialects or have different family histories.
They may be young or old.
They may live close to the Nation or far away.
But diversity does not necessarily diminish the circle.
It can make the circle stronger when every part is recognized and respected.
The challenge for modern First Nations governments is finding ways to maintain that connection while respecting the Nation's laws, traditions, resources and practical limitations.
That is not an easy task.
But perhaps the Medicine Wheel offers a starting point.
Look at the whole.
Listen to every direction.
Recognize that what happens to one part can affect the others.
And remember that a circle is not complete because one section is stronger than the others.
It is complete because all of its parts belong.
For a First Nations community, that may be one of the most important teachings of all:
A citizen may live somewhere else, but that does not necessarily mean they are somewhere else in the circle.
