A community gathering: Selecting the symbols of stewardship in the Ojibwe and farming communities of northern Wisconsin

This study, based in northern Wisconsin, examines the combined efforts of a group of Native Americans, farmers and environmental activists within issues of resource stewardship, in an attempt to determine if this coalition can be described as a community. The study centers on the symbolic expression of community displayed in several different instances: the presentation of a mixed blood land surveyor who acts as a symbol of local unity; boat landing confrontations between spearfishers and demonstrators during the reinstatement of Ojibwe treaty rights; mining protests in Rusk County; and finally, an annual gathering which evolved from the mutual concerns of these socially active individuals. Taped interviews, observation of events, and scrutiny of published and orated statements were employed to discover central metaphors and actions that the group used to describe itself. The study concludes that different elements of a community can temporarily agree on the meaning of such notions as stewardship, but that those notions and the symbols used to express them are under constant negotiation. Because symbols cluster meanings, they effectively unify diverse groups without achieving absolute consensus. Individual engagement and the maintenance of social boundaries are seen as more important factors in the definition of community than is a list of descriptive factors