Hrothgar

I found 89,200 references to this concept in google, including a comment by Bill Clinton:

In an address to tribal leaders at the April 29, 1994, meeting at the White House, President Clinton said, "The Great Law of the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy contained this advice: 'In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decision on the next seven generations.' We are stewards; we are caretakers. That standard will keep us great." The USDA (The U.S. Department of Agriculture) produced a poster "For We Are the Keepers of the Seven Generations" ... www.usda.gov/news/pubs/indians/preface.htm

Before 1600, five indigenous nations -- the Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, and Seneca -- formed the Haudenosaunee Confederation, or League of the Iroquois, with homelands then covering what is now upper New York State. (Since then, the Tuscarora and remnants of other indigenous nations have joined.)
In the Haudenosaunee system, there has never been a concept of a dictatorial leader, let alone a male one. The Haudenosaunee were, and continue to be, matrilineal. When a man and woman marry, the man moves to the woman's family, and newborn children enter the clan of their mother. The clan mothers select the political leadership of the nations, and possess the authority to remove leaders from office for malfeasance. In addition to leadership selection and removal, the clan mothers also serve as the judiciary. A centuries old Haudenosaunee philosophy states that that all major decisions of a nation must be based on how those decisions will affect at least the next seven generations.

http://www.ic.org/pnp/cdir/1995/30morris.html

best wishes

freda