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GEN7 MISSION:
To convene, mobilize and empower Native and non-Native young leaders; building relationships, bridging cultural gaps and providing the tools and resources necessary to bring awareness to pressing issues and make genuine change in the world around them.
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GEN7 DESCRIPTION:

While we provide mentorship and work on projects between gatherings, it is through multiple gatherings and our *Woksape (Woh-ksah-pay >Wisdom) gatherings that Gen7 youth gain the most skills and build lasting friendships. At these gatherings, the youth explore social change and create an authentic community. Rooted in the power of morning and evening circle and the belief that youth both crave and need genuine contact with one another, each Gen7 gathering includes these four elements:
I.    Cultural Bridge Building
Gen7 Youth represent a diversity of cultures, perspectives, gender identities and backgrounds. Through Gen7 events, youth come together to share their life experiences and teach one another about their unique cultural identity. They are encouraged to explore their differences, identify and address their implicit biases and embrace their commonalities.
II.   Leadership Skill Building
Gen7 events provide youth with the tools and resources necessary to go home and take on leadership roles and address issues in their communities that they are most passionate about. They explore their own strengths and weaknesses, learn about social justice, activism and allyship. Each youth is supported in taking on a social impact project of their choice.
III. Community Service
Giving back to the communities in which we visit is emphasized during each Gen7 event. Gen7 youth have worked together to cut and haul firewood, provide needed food and supplies, address conditions of poverty and connect in meaningful ways with the community members they have visited.
IV.  Recreation 
We believe in the power of playing and laughing together and we seek to balance out the hard work and intensity of each Gen7 event with plenty of time to have fun and take on new adventures. Be it hikes, horse-riding, ropes courses or ghost stories; Gen7 youth solidify their friendships through these more playful times together.

*Woksape Gatherings (Woksape - pronounced wok-ksah-pay - means “Wisdom”).  Our Woksape gatherings are deeper dives into leadership skill building.  A Woksape gathering is typically a retreat or summit and includes workshops, working in cohorts, youth-led presentations and opportunities to help plan and lead the gathering.

Gen7 Youth range from middle school to young adults.

WHY GEN7 YOUTH?

Now, more than ever, we need strong, visionary, committed and courageous young leaders from all races to come together for the good of the whole. Gen7 is inspired by the indigenous belief that all actions taken should be done so with an awareness of their impact in seven generations. Also, in the late 1800's, the great warrior of the Oglala Lakota, Crazy Horse, spoke of a vision he had in which healing would take place from the trauma and devastation that started at the time of the European migration. In this vision, he prophesied that the Seventh Generation will be the generation of healing in which all colors of mankind come together: 

“UPON SUFFERING BEYOND SUFFERING; THE RED NATION SHALL RISE AGAIN AND IT SHALL BE A BLESSING FOR A SICK WORLD. A WORLD FILLED WITH BROKEN PROMISES, SELFISHNESS AND SEPARATIONS. A WORLD LONGING FOR LIGHT AGAIN. I SEE A TIME OF SEVEN GENERATIONS WHEN ALL THE COLORS OF MANKIND WILL GATHER UNDER THE SACRED TREE OF LIFE AND THE WHOLE EARTH WILL BECOME ONE CIRCLE AGAIN. IN THAT DAY THERE WILL BE THOSE AMONG THE LAKOTA WHO WILL CARRY KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF UNITY AMONG ALL LIVING THINGS, AND THE YOUNG WHITE ONES WILL COME TO THOSE OF MY PEOPLE AND ASK FOR THIS WISDOM. I SALUTE THE LIGHT WITHIN YOUR EYES WHERE THE WHOLE UNIVERSE DWELLS. FOR WHEN YOU ARE AT THAT CENTER WITHIN YOU AND I AM THAT PLACE WITHIN ME, WE SHALL BE AS ONE".   
--                                                                           - Crazy Horse

The Time of the Seventh Generation is Now!

​In June 2019, the Gen7 Youth chose the following 7 guiding values:

​Prayer<>Honesty<>Participation<>Community<>Love
Humility<>Respect

Gen7/Navajo Nation Trip  Gen7 Youth Poem

Gen7/Navajo Nation Trip Gen7 Youth Article

By Rhyia -Northern Arapahoe/Eastern Shoshone

A Moment in Two Worlds

The world we live in exchanges time for money.  Every second is a heartbeat; an inhale; an exhale. If you could afford just a moment of your life- would you? 

As I walk this road of my ancestors I stop and listen. As I look for a familiar sound in an unfamiliar place,straying away from resistance and fear of the unknown, I hear every step I make and am reminded of my substance and existence.

The bushes sway, breathe with me. As I walk by they greet me with every rustle in the wind.

Suddenly I hear jingles in the quivering leaves bringing me back to my familiar peace.

The wrath of my grandmother's shawl dancing in the wind brushes my hair across my face.  I cannot see their presence but I can feel their love embrace my shoulder. If I listen closer I could hear the prayers of a million different languages looking for an answer already within.

As I walk down this unfamiliar road I am reminded I never walk alone.

If you could afford just a moment of your life to listen, would you?

By Skyla

​​Reflections on my June trip to the Navajo Nation in Arizona

 I have been going on trips to the Pine Ridge Lakota Reservation for about two years now to volunteer. This last June, a group of young people including myself went to the Navajo Nation in Kayenta, Arizona. Some people I had met before, some I was meeting for the first time. We had all gathered together with the intentions of getting to know each other, of bonding, and figuring out how to work together to make a better world between us, a world in which there was trust between us, the Native and non-Native.

Despite having been on trips with the Tipi Raisers before, I found this experience to be something even a bit more special, if that could be possible. There were nine of us, six girls and three boys. The six of us crowded into a modern hogan, sharing beds and sinks and showers and stories. Within a day, the girls in my room felt like sisters. Sharing my space with them felt only natural and desirable, there was never a feeling of loneliness. As the days passed, we all spent time together in the circles, talking, opening our hearts, learning about ourselves and each other. It was a profound feeling to realize that these people who had been strangers only a day before felt the same exact feelings as I did, the same joys, delights, even sorrows. I had felt quite alone for a while, and suddenly I was within a family that welcomed me and held my heart and my hands and let me be exactly who I am, no expectations, only honesty.
We were met in this amazing place by two incredibly beautiful people; a woman called Belinda and a medicine man called Darryl. These people, who were also strangers before, came in and became family as well, and it felt as if we’d all been around each other all our lives. To look across the circle and see these suddenly familiar faces, to walk into my room and see five sleeping girls that were now my sisters changed my life. All barriers that might have existed vanished. Despite being one of the two non-Native out of the nine of us, it never crossed my mind that I was the only non-Native girl in the room. To me I was simply with my sisters, and I knew they felt the same way. We shared our cultures and memories and hopes and dreams, and all I felt was a sense of unity and oneness. It was heartbreaking to say goodbye at the end of the week, but our hearts are still connected; there’s a string that holds us together until we can see each other again.

This was Crazy Horse’s vision. That Native and non-Native would unite and share their worlds, to feel like one family, to share one hope and goal, to have love between us despite having grown up different. To address and heal our traumas together, to hold hands and bring our hearts close together and realize that we are truly the same.
This trip truly brought the dream that Crazy Horse had 7 generations ago to life. It has become my mission to make sure that I, a youth in the 7th generation, refuse to let our differences divide us, to work with my Native and non-Native brothers and sisters to make a better world for all of us.

​Mitakuye Oasin. 

contact us to learn more and to apply to Gen7

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