The Seven Grandfathers Teachings
In August 2026, we explored together the teachings that are part of my own heritage as a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation.
Read The Seven Grandfathers—A Potawatomi story.
The teachings, or gifts, from the Seven Grandfathers, help us to live in harmony with the living world and each other.
They include wisdom, love, respect, bravery, honesty, humility, and truth.
The teachings below are in both English and Potawatomi.
Wisdom
nebwakawen (neh-BWAH-kah-wen)
The act of possessing sound judgment or acting with prudence.
Applying knowledge for the well-being of the whole community.
To weave knowledge together with love, respect, and humility.
Love
dbandewen
(deb-ahn-deh-wen)The act of treasuring, cherishing, and “holding dear” one another.
Not an emotion, but an unconditional reciprocal commitment to all relations.
mnadéndemwen
(m'naah-DEN-dem-wen)Respect
The act of care, affection, and gratitude between relations.
“Going easy on” each other.
Reciprocal relationship.
wédaséwen
(weh-DAH-say-wen)Bravery
The act of being strong with heart.
Moral courage over physical force.
Stand up to protect relations because you honor them as sacred.
Honesty
gwékwadzewen
(gwek-WAH-dze-wen)The act of living upright and walking a straight path.
To walk without bending the truth or twisting your words to serve yourself.
Honesty to face difficult, uncomfortable situations with dignity and self-respect.
Humility
edbeséndewen
(ed-beh-SEN-deh-wen)The act of keeping one's thoughts of oneself low and balanced relative to creation.
I’m not more important than the relatives who give me life.
débwéwen
(day-BWAY-wen)Truth
The act of speaking to the fullest extent; without embellishment.
Living in full alignment with reality.
The capstone/integrator of all Seven Teachings.
View our past Sunday bulletins from August 2nd, 9th, and 16th, where we discussed the Seven Grandfathers Teachings.
What I noticed while learning about these teachings
Each of the words in Potawatomi ends with -wen. That translates to “the practice of” or "the act of”. This stood out to me in that these teachings aren’t simply head knowledge or theory. They are embodied and meant to show up in our relationship with all beings.
The definition for wisdom stood out to me because it’s using your wisdom for the well-being of the community. It’s not about hoarding knowledge for ourselves. It’s again, a practice to benefit all of us.
I loved how humility is about putting ourselves as humans on equal footing as the rest of the living world. Too often we’ve been told we’re superior. Instead, we are all neighbors, meant to live in harmony on this planet called Earth.
In the Potawatomi story, it talks about how each of the teachings has an opposite. When I look around our American culture, it’s so easy to spot the opposites of each of these teachings. And it’s up to each of us to live out the teachings that bring harmony and repair instead of disharmony and destruction.
I want to give credit to James Vukelich Kaagegaabaw. His insights were a big part of my research. He has a fantastic book called The Seven Generations and the Seven Grandfather Teachings. If you’d like to go deeper, check out his lecture on YouTube about these teachings.
Josh Hersh