The notion of extending rights beyond humanity is hardly new, and from the beginning the act entangled us in responsibilities. In Becoming Kin, Ojibwe writer Patty Krawec describes the Anishinaabe myth of a flood unleashed upon societies who neglected to care for one another and all Creation. A surviving human, cast adrift, was saved by a muskrat who gave his life to dredge up a pawful of mud. A congregation of animals gathered to use this gift to fashion solid land. Through this cooperative caregiving, humanity was welcomed into a new world, reborn in solidarity among all species.
The stories we tell shape our relationship with the world and the values we hold dear. With colonial invasion, contrasting creation stories swept across North America.