The Dish With One Spoon agreement far precedes European contact and has been ratified many times between many Indigenous nations over the centuries.   The dish represents the land: a common hunting ground. The land provides everything humans need and the idea that we should come peaceably together to use one spoon to share from one collective bowl.

There are many Wampum Belts associated with this Treaty.  They show a small bowl at the centre of the belt which is sometimes depicted as a beaver tail, a common dish to both eat and eat from.

The Dish With One Spoon treaty is unique from other treaties because it is also a covenant with nature. The three basic tenets of the agreement are:  take only what you need, always leave something in the dish for everybody else, and keep the dish clean.

In recent years the Dish With One Spoon Treaty agreement has been extended to anyone living in this Great Lakes Region as a way to inspire care for this common land.  It is important to remember, however, that for most of us we may share from this dish, but it is not our dish.