Coming off from our Advent and Christmas season, we remember the time we took setting up our trees or décor. Physically, it seems easier to take down our decorations than to put them up. There’s no need to think about how the decoration and ornaments look or how they are placed when it gets put back into their box or... READ MORE >
Editor’s note: The stories recounted here are largely taken from the oral tradition of the Ojibwe and some written historical accounts. The Lake Superior treaty creating the Grand Portage Indian Reservation was signed by the United States government and chiefs at Madeline Island near today’s Bayfield, Wisconsin in 1854. Before that, white people were not allowed to enter that vast... READ MORE >
Editor’s note: This story is based on written historical records, but it is also based on oral accounts passed down through the generations. As you may know, “Makade Asin,” Blackstone was the son of a British officer and chief ’s daughter. He had a tiny bit of hair on the side of his cheeks that showed he had some white... READ MORE >
Editor’s note: This is an oral history of Chief Blackstone. There were few written records to assemble this story, but this famous Ojibwa chief ’s life had many retellings. The victor writes the history, and Chief Blackstone’s record has been largely kept hidden from the public. Why? The government simply does not want you to know what really happens. Chief... READ MORE >
Long ago on South Foul, Northern Light, Gunflint, and Saganaga Lakes, there were many small Anishinaabe villages. The population of these villages was small because of the long winter seasons, which can have snow on the ground for six months. This is the only time the Nanabozho stories can be told. Otter Track Lake up that way, was long ago... READ MORE >
The creator made the first Anishinaabe. The creator first made a woman. He took a rib from her, and then made a man. This is why women have one less rib than a man. The Anishinaabe people led by the clans, came from the east coast of the great saltwater ocean in their last migration. Remains found today in Cook... READ MORE >
Long ago in the late 1300’s, the Ojibwe people left “Ba wi ting,” which means the rapids, at present day Sault St. Marie on the eastern edge of Lake Superior. Most followed the south shore and stayed for about two hundred years at the large island in “Shag ah wami kang Bay,” today called Madeline Island. The Sioux and other... READ MORE >
In the early 1900s, an Anishinaabe man became ill with a strange sickness. In the 1970s, a man who then was in his 80s told me how they had taken him to “chi bi to bii gam” which means grand twin bays, called Grand Marais. The man who told me this story was “O jee g eynce” meaning Little Fisher.... READ MORE >
Long ago an Ojibwe elder told me an interesting story. As a child he lived deep in the woods on an island within a huge lake. As a child with charcoal on his face and with much fear he fasted for many days and nights. During that time he received many visions. As he became an older man he had... READ MORE >
My father always used to say that if something is worth doing, it is worth doing poorly, which is to say that if you’re going to hold off doing something until you can get it perfect, it’s not ever going to happen, and that would be a tragic loss for you, and perhaps (likely) others too. Musicians spend a lifetime... READ MORE >
