"These animals and the plants and everything else, their spirits feed our spirits... you know if we don't have the fish, if we don't have the deer, if we don't have the plants to feed us spiritually, we are no longer Anishinabe."

The traditional Anishinabe-Ojibwe subsistence lifestyle is based on the cycle of the four seasons and reflects our worldview where the individual is dependent on the group, the group is dependent on nature, and nature is dependent upon the supernatural for survival. For centuries, this web of interdependence maintained our balancd relationship with all living things, in a sustainable economic system.

Episode four of Waasa-Inaabidaa - We Look In All Directions describes our traditional survival system through numerous interviews with historians, tribal leaders, and elders, with visually stunning dramatic sequences of the four seasons traditional economic cycle. Key interviews are powerfully illustrated with archival photos, documents, maps, and film footage.

Travel from the times before contact, hrough the French Fur Trade, (which introduced the foreign concepts of personal profit, land ownership, greed and debt); the bleak eras of treaties, reservations, and land loss: the 1960's & 70's (which marked a significant turning point for the Ojibwe people as we entered a new era of self-determination & cultural revival); and into contemporary times when favorable court decisions have re-affirmed our reserved rights to practice traditional hunting, fishing, and gathering cycles. Today's Ojibwe people are experiencing a renewed economic sovereignty through new sources of financial stability including gaming, tribal businesses, and individual entrepeneurs.