Paging Gazhekwe

[gazhekwe]

Among the people of long, long ago, Old Man Coyote was the symbol of good. Mountain Sheep was the symbol of evil. Old-Man-in-the-Sky created the world. Then he drained all the water off the earth and crowded it into the big salt holes now called the oceans. The land became dry except for the lakes and rivers.

Old Man Coyote often became lonely and went up to the Sky World just to talk. One time he was so unhappy that he was crying. Old- Man-in-the-Sky questioned him.

"Why are you so unhappy that you are crying? Have I not made much land for you to run around on? Are not Chief Beaver, Chief Otter, Chief Bear, and Chief Buffalo on the land to keep you company?

"Why do you not like Mountain Sheep? I placed him up in the hilly parts so that you two need not fight. Why do you come up here so often?"

Old Man Coyote sat down and cried more tears. Old-Man-in-the-Sky became cross and began to scold him.

"Foolish Old Man Coyote, you must not drop so much water down upon the land. Have I not worked many days to dry it? Soon you will have it all covered with water again. What is the trouble with you? What more do you want to make you happy?"

"I am very lonely because I have no one to talk to," he replied. "Chief Beaver, Chief Otter, Chief Bear, and Chief Buffalo are busy with their families. They do not have time to visit with me. I want people of my own, so that I may watch over them."

"Then stop this shedding of water," said Old-Man-in-the-Sky. "If you will stop annoying me with your visits, I will make people for you. Take this parfleche. It is a bag made of rawhide. Take it some place in the mountain where there is red earth. Fill it and bring it back up to me."

Old Man Coyote took the bag made of the skin of an animal and travelled many days and nights. At last he came to a mountain where there was much red soil. He was very weary after such a long journey but he managed to fill the parfleche. Then he was sleepy.

"I will lie down to sleep for a while. When I waken, I will run swiftly back to Old-Man-in-the-Sky."

He slept very soundly.

After a while, Mountain Sheep came along. He saw the bag and looked to see what was in it.

"The poor fool has come a long distance to get such a big load of red soil," he said to himself. "I do not know what he wants it for, but I will have fun with him."

Mountain Sheep dumped all of the red soil out upon the mountain. He filled the lower part of the parfleche with white soil, and the upper part with red soil. Then laughing heartily, he ran to his hiding place.

Soon Old Man Coyote woke up. He tied the top of the bag and hurried with it to Old-Man-in-the-Sky. When he arrived with it, the sun was going to sleep. It was so dark that the two of them could hardly see the soil in the parfleche.

Old-Man-in-the-Sky took the dirt and said, "I will make this soil into the forms of two men and two women."

He did not see that half of the soil was red and the other half white. Then he said to Old Man Coyote, "Take these to the dry land below. They are your people. You can talk with them. So do not come up here to trouble me."

Then he finished shaping the two men and two women--in the darkness.

Old Man Coyote put them in the parfleche and carried them down to dry land. In the morning he took them out and put breath into them. He was surprised to see that one pair was red and the other was white.

"Now I know that Mountain Sheep came while I was asleep. I cannot keep these two colors together."

He thought a while. Then he carried the white ones to the land by the big salt hole. The red ones he kept in his own land so that he could visit with them. That is how Indians and white people came to the earth.

[gazhekwe]

Elder's Meditation of the Day - December 25

"When you see a new trail, or a footprint that you do not know, follow it to the point of knowing."
-- Grandmother of Charles Eastman, SANTEE SIOUX

We never gain new knowledge or new experience unless we are willing to take risks. It's good to be curious. Also, it pays to be cautious. Walk in balance. The path of the Warrior is filled with opportunities to seek new knowledge. As we travel down the Red Road, we will run into trails of opportunity. Down each of these trails are experiences from which we will learn. Experience plus action is the beginning of knowledge."

Great Spirit, help me to make good choices in choosing only the trails You would have me take.

I was thinking about gifts we have been given, and how some of them seem to go awry. Tobacco and alcohol were running through my mind as I was talking to a lonely relative last night.

Tobacco and alcohol are both medicines. Tobacco we learned over many generations, has many benefits when used in a spiritual way, with prayer and humility. As we have seen, without the important spiritual connection, it can become addictive and harmful. We have followed that path to its extreme and learned about tobacco in its negative extreme.

We have the teaching that alcohol is a bad gift given by the colonists. Our use of it without spiritual intent weakened and sickened us. Had we learned from it at that time, we could have been in a completely different position today. Notice that Jesus taught a spiritual way to use wine. We all have the lessons of what happens with profligate use of alcohol. We have lessons on how to use it for our benefit. Using the lessons learned thus far on the trail of opportunity, we can see a course change could be a good thing. It is something each of us has in front of us, and no one can really direct us, it has to come from our connection to the Creator, and to our place among the beings of the earth. When you look at things with the perspective of traveling a path to learn, it just makes sense to use what we learn to help ourselves and others by our example and teaching.

Blessings and have a wonderful Christmas. Love to all our relations!

[Wingnatic]

Danistahohihv pronounced [[dah nees dah hoe hee huh) Cherokee
&
Joyeux Noël

[gazhekwe]

Mno-niibaanaamaag, kina nwiijkiwen'iig!! [[Anishinaabemowin)

[gazhekwe]

This is a time of year for stories about how things came to be. This one comes from a Cherokee elder. I will post it in serial format, and it will take two or three days to get through the whole story.

The Four Directions - Four Races
A speech by Lee Brown, Cherokee

Cherokee Prophecies
There was the cycle of the mineral, the rock. There was the cycle of the plant. And now we are in the cycle of the animal coming to the end of that and beginning the cycle of the human being. When we get into the cycle of the human being, the highest and greatest powers that we have will be released to us.

At the beginning of this cycle of time, long ago, the Great Spirit made an appearance and gathered the peoples of this earth together, and said to the human beings,

"I'm going to send you to four directions, and over time I'm going to change you to four colors, but I'm going to give you some teachings, and you will call these the Original Teachings; when you come back together with each other, you will share these so that you can live and have peace on earth, and a great civilization will come about. During the cycle of time, I'm going to give each of you two stone tablets. When I give you those stone tablets, don't cast them upon the ground. If any of the sisters and brothers cast their tablets on the ground, not only will human beings have a hard time, but almost the earth itself will die."

And so He gave each of us a responsibility, and we call that the Guardianship. To the East, He gave the Indian people, the red people, the Guardianship of the Earth. We were to learn during this cycle of time the teachings of the earth, the plants that grow from the earth, the foods that you can eat, and the herbs that heal so that, when we came back together with the other sisters and brothers, we could share this knowledge with them. Something good was to happen on the earth.

To the South He gave the yellow race of people the Guardianship of the Wind. They were to learn about the sky and breathing and how to take that within ourselves for spiritual advancement. They were to share that with us at this time.

To the West He gave the black race of people the Guardianship of the Water. They were to learn the teachings of the water, which is the chief of the elements, being the most humble and the most powerful. The elders have told me that the black people would bring the teachings of the water.

To the North He gave the white race of people the Guardianship of the Fire. If you look at the center of many of the things they do, you will find the fire. They say a light bulb is the white man's fire. If you look at the center of a car you will find a spark. If you look at the center of the airplane and the train you will find the fire. The fire consumes, and also moves. This is why it was the white sisters and brothers who began to move upon the face of the earth and reunite us as a human family.

[gazhekwe]

And so a long time passed, and the Great Spirit gave each of the four races two stone tablets. Ours are kept at the Hopi Reservation in Arizona at Four Corners Area on Third Mesa. I talked to people from the black race, and their stone tablets are at the foot of Mount Kenya. They are kept by the Kukuyu Tribe.

I was at an Indian spiritual gathering about 15 years ago. A medicine man from South Dakota put a beaded medicine wheel in the middle of the gathering. It had the four colors from the four directions; he asked the people,

"Where is this from?"

They said, "Probably Montana, or South Dakota, maybe Saskatchewan."

He said, "This is from Kenya."

It was beaded just like ours, with the same colors.

The stone tablets of the yellow race of people are kept by the Tibetans. If you went straight through the Hopi Reservation to the other side of the world, you would come out in Tibet. The Tibetan word for sun is the Hopi word for moon, and the Hopi word for sun is the Tibetan word for moon.

The guardians of the traditions of the people of Europe are the Swiss. In Switzerland, they still have a day when each family brings out its mask. They still know the colors of the families, and they still know the symbols, some of them.

Each of these four peoples happen to live in the mountains.

Each of the four races went to their directions and learned their teachings. It was in Newsweek not long ago that eight out of ten foods that people eat on the earth are developed here in the western hemisphere because that was our Guardianship -- to learn the teachings of the earth and the things that grow from the earth. We were given a sacred handshake to show, when we came back together as sisters and brothers, that we still remembered the teachings.

It was indicated on the stone tablets that the Hopis had that the first sisters and brothers who would come back to them would come as turtles across the land. They would be human beings, but they would come as turtles. So when the time came close, the Hopis were at a special village to welcome the turtles that would come across the land.

They got up in the morning and looked out at the sunrise. They looked out across the desert, and they saw the Spanish conquistadores coming, covered in armor, like turtles across the land. So this was them. So they went out to the Spanish man, and they extended their hand, hoping for the handshake. But into the hand the Spanish man dropped a trinket. And so word spread throughout North America that there was going to be a hard time, that maybe some of the brothers and sisters had forgotten the sacredness of all things and all the human beings were going to suffer for this on the earth.

So tribes began to send people to the mountains to have visions to try to figure out how they could survive. At that time there were 100,000 cities in the Mississippi Valley alone, called the mound civilization: Cities built on great mounds. Those mounds are still there. They began to try to learn to live off the land because they knew a hard time was going to come.

They began to send people to have visions to see how we could survive this time. They were told in the prophecies that we should try to remind all the people that would come here of the sacredness of all things. If we could do that, then there would be peace on earth. But if we did not do that, if we had not come together as a human family, the Great Spirit would grab the earth with His hand and shake it.

[gazhekwe]

The elders on the west coast prophesied that they would then begin to build a black ribbon. And on this black ribbon there would move a bug. And when you begin to see this bug moving on the land, that was the sign for the First Shaking of the Earth. The First Shaking of the Earth would be so violent that this bug would be shaken off the earth into the air and it would begin to move and fly in the air. And by the end of this shaking this bug will be in the air around the world. Behind it would be a trail of dirt and eventually the whole sky of the entire earth would become dirty from these trails of dirt, and this would cause many diseases that would get more and more complicated. So the bug moving on the land, of course it's easy to see now. In 1908 the Model-T Ford was mass produced for the first time. So the elders knew the First Shaking of the Earth was about to come about -- that was the First World War.

In the First World War the airplane came into wide usage for the first time. That was that bug moving into the sky. And so they knew something very important would happen. There would be an attempt to make peace on earth on the west coast of this land, and so the elders began to watch for this. They began to hear that there was going to be a League of Nations in San Francisco, so the elders gathered in Arizona around 1920 or so, and they wrote a letter to Woodrow Wilson. They asked if the Indian people could be included in the League of Nations.

The United States Supreme Court had held that a reservation is a separate and semi-sovereign nation, not a part of the United States but protected by it. This became a concern because people didn't want the reservations to become more and more separate. They didn't want them to be considered nations. So they did not write back, and the Native people were left out of the League of Nations so that circle was incomplete.

In the League of Nations circle there was a southern door, the yellow people; there was a western door, the black people; there was a northern door, the white people; but the eastern door was not attended. The elders knew that peace would not come on the earth until the circle of humanity is complete, until all the four colors sat in the circle and shared their teachings, then peace would come on earth.

So they knew things would happen. Things would speed up a little it. There would be a cobweb built around the earth, and people would talk across this cobweb. When this talking cobweb, the telephone, was built around the earth, a sign of life would appear in the east, but it would tilt and bring death [[the swastika of the Nazis). It would come with the sun. But the sun itself would rise one day, not in the east but in the west [[the rising sun of the Japanese Empire).

So the elders said when you see the sun rising in the west, and you see the sign of life reversed and tilted in the east, you know that the Great Death is to come upon the earth, and now the Great Spirit will grab the earth again in His hand and shake it, and this shaking will be worse than the first. So the sign of life reversed and tilted, we call that the Swastika, and the rising sun in the west was the Rising Sun of Japan. These two symbols are carved in stone in Arizona. When the elders saw these two flags, they knew that these were the signs that the earth was to be shaken again.

[gazhekwe]

NOTE: This story was told by Lee Brown at the 1986 Continental Indigenous Council, Fairbanks, Alaska

The worse misuse of the Guardianship of the fire is called the gourd of ashes. They said the gourd of ashes will fall from the air. It will make the people like blades of grass in the prairie fire, and things will not grow for many seasons. The atomic bomb, the gourd of ashes, it was the best-kept secret in the history of the US. The elders wanted to speak about it in 1920.

They would have spoken of it and foretold its coming if they could have entered into the League of Nations. The elders tried to contact President Roosevelt to ask him not to use the gourd of ashes because it would have a great effect on the earth and eventually cause even greater destruction and a the Third Shaking of the Earth, the Third World War.

So they knew after the Second Shaking of the Earth when they saw the gourd of ashes fall from the sky, there would be an attempt to make peace on the other side of this land. And because the peace attempt on the west coast had failed, they would build a special house on the east coast of this Turtle Island, and all the nations and peoples of the earth would come to this house, and it would be called the House of Mica, and it would shine like the mica on the desert shines. So the elders began to see they were building the United Nations made out of glass that reflects like the mica on the desert so they knew this was the House of Mica, and all the peoples of the earth should go to it. So they met and talked about this. They said that in the 1920's they had written and they had not been responded to, so they said this time we'd better go to the front door of the House of Mica because things might get a lot worse.

So elders representing a number of tribes drove to New York City. When the United Nations opened, they went to the front door of the house of Mica and they said these words,

'We represent the indigenous people of North America, and we wish to address the nations of the Earth. We're going to give you four days to consider whether or not we will be allowed to speak.'

They retreated to one of the Six Nations Reserves in New York State. Four days later they came back, and I believe the nations of the earth heard that the Indians had come to the door. And they voted to let the Indians in. They wanted to hear what they had to say. But the United States is one of five nations of the United Nations with a veto power, and still they were concerned because this time the Native sovereignty was even stronger. And I believe they vetoed the entrance of the Native people.

So then they knew other things would happen on the Earth. So they retreated to the Six Nations Reserve, and they talked about this, and they said the time is really getting close now -- 1949.

They said, "We're going to divide the United States into four sections, and each year we're going to have a gathering. We're going to call these the White Roots of Peace Gatherings."

They began to have these around 1950. And they authorized certain people to speak in English for the first time about these prophecies.

One that I used to listen to many times, over and over, was Thomas Banyaca. He was authorized to speak in English about what was on the stone tablets, and he has dedicated his life to doing this. And they began to tell us at these gatherings,

"You're going to see a time in your lifetime when the human beings are going to find the blueprint that makes us."

They call that now DNA, deoxyribonucleic acid. They said,

"They're going to cut this blueprint."

They call that now genetic splicing. And they said,

"They're going to make new animals upon the earth, and they're going to think these are going to help us. And it's going to seem like they do help us. But maybe the grandchildren and great-grandchildren are going to suffer."

The elders said long ago, "They will release these things, and they will use them."

This is going to be released not too long from now. They are making new animals. The elders talked about this. They said,

"You will see new animals, and even the old animals will come back, animals that people thought had disappeared. They will find them here and there. They'll begin to reappear."

They said, "You're going to see a time when the eagle will fly its highest in the night, and it will land upon the moon. And at that time, many of the Native people will be sleeping," which symbolically means they have lost their teachings.

We're at that time now. The Eagle has landed on the moon, 1969. When that spaceship landed, they sent back the message,

"The Eagle has landed."

Traditionally, Native people from clear up in the Inuit region have shared with us this prophecy, clear down to the Quechuas in South America.
At this time you're going to see that things will speed up, that people on the earth will move faster and faster. Grandchildren will not have time for grandparents. Parents will not have time for children. It will seem like time is going faster and faster.

The elders advised us that, as things speed up, you yourself should slow down. The faster things go, the slower you go. Because there's going to come a time when the earth is going to be shaken a third time. The Great Spirit has shaken the earth two times: the First and Second World Wars to remind us that we are a human family, to remind us that we should have greeted each other as brothers and sisters. We had a chance after each shaking to come together in a circle that would have brought peace on earth, but we missed that.

[gazhekwe]

Mino Nimkwadaading, Kina Gwaya!

[gazhekwe]

Tonight they were talking on the news about the sign for the Third Shaking of the Earth. They said they're going to build what the elders called the house in the sky. In the 1950's they talked about this: They will build a house and throw it in the sky. When you see people living in the sky on a permanent basis, you will know the Great Spirit is about to grab the earth, this time not with one hand, but with both hands. When this house is in the sky, the Great Spirit is going to shake the Earth a third time, and whoever dropped that gourd of ashes, upon them it is going to drop.

They say at that time there will be villages in this land so great that when you stand in the villages you will not be able to see out, and in the prophecies these are called villages of stone, or prairies of stone. And they said the stone will grow up from the ground, and you will not be able to see beyond the village.

At the center of each and every one of these villages will be Native people, and they will walk as hollow shells upon a prairie of stone. They said hollow shells, which means they will have lost any of their traditional understandings; they will be empty within. They said that, after the Eagle lands on the moon, some of these people will begin to leave these prairies of stone and come home and take up some of the old ways and begin to make themselves reborn, because it's a new day. But many will not. And they said there's going to come a time when in the morning the sun is going to rise, and this village of stone will be there, and in the evening there would just be steam coming from the ground. They will be as steam. And in the center of many of those villages of stone, when they turn to steam, the Native people will turn to steam also because they never woke up and left the village.

They say there's going to be the Third Shaking of the Earth. It's not going to be a good thing to see, but we will survive it. We will survive it. And when we survive it, there's going to be another attempt to make a circle of the human beings on the earth. And this time the Native people will not have to petition to join but will be invited to enter the circle because they say the attitude toward us will have changed by then, and people will let us into the circle, and all the four colors of the four directions will share their wisdom, and there will be a peace on earth. This is coming close.

The prophecies are always either/or. We could have come together way back there in 1565, and we could have had a great civilization, but we didn't. Always along the path of these prophecies, we could have come together. We still could.

If we could stop the racial and religious disharmony, we would not have to go through this third shaking. The elders say the chance of that is pretty slim. It seems to me like it's pretty slim, too. But they say what we can do is we can cushion it so it won't be quite as bad. How do we do this? We do this by sharing the teaching that will reunite us.

***********
From a talk at the 1986 Continental Indigenous Council, Fairbanks, Alaska, by Lee Brown

http://home.online.no/~arnfin/native/lore/four.htm

http://crystalinks.com/cherokee.html

[Wingnatic]

Aliheli'sdi Itse Udetiyvasadisv
I think this says Happy New Year in Cherokee , it was windy today and could have got the smoke signals [[google ) mixed up lol

[gazhekwe]

One red autumn, two brothers went on a hunting expedition for their tribe. They come to the source of the Penobscott river and there they stayed all winter. They had no woman with them to do all the tasks that make a hunter thankful.

So most of the daily tasks fell upon the younger brother who said to his older brother, "I wish there were a woman in our wigwam to mend and cook, to sew and clean for us."

"Well, our mother and sisters are at home, brother. We must do the best we can," replied the older brother. By the time spring came around, their snowshoes were broken and their moccasins were full of holes.

One day, when the snow was still hard and icy, the younger brother came home to find that the wigwam was clean and tidy! A fire was burning and there was hot water already boiling in the pot. He said nothing to his brother, but the next day, he returned home early in order to spy on the wigwam. In the light of the dying sun, he saw a beautiful maiden step through the woods and busy herself about the household tasks. She was smaller and more delicate than any woman he had ever seen. He stepped into the wigwam and greeted her,

"Thank you, maiden, for the work you've been doing. It's very hard for hunters to be alone during the harsh winter."

She replied, "Your brother is coming. I am frightened of him. But I will see you tomorrow if you come home early." With that, she slipped away.

The young hunter said nothing to his brother, but the next day he crept home early and there was the maiden again. Together they played in the snow like children. Just before the sun went down, the young hunter begged her,

"Please stay with me forever. My heart was never so happy as now."

The maiden frowned. "Speak to your brother tonight. Tell him everything. Maybe I will stay and serve you both, for I can make snowshoes and moccasins, and build canoes." With that, she slipped away.

When the elder brother came home, he listened eagerly to his young brother, then said, "It seems that we have been lucky! I would be very glad to have a woman help us and care for our camp."

The next morning, the maiden came again. Behind her she pulled a toboggan piled high with hand - sewn garments and finely worked weapons. She greeted both the brothers, who exclaimed at the beauty of the clothes and weapons. "I too am a hunter," was all she would say and she set to work.

The rest of the snowbound spring passed quickly. The maiden cared for the hunters, sewing, mending and making herself useful in ways that they both quickly took for granted. They also seemed to be particularly lucky in their hunting. They soon had many furs and were ready to return to their tribe.

When the snow began to thaw, the brothers returned home by canoe down the Penobscot River. When they were halfway down the river the maiden began to look pale and faint.

"Stop!" she called out to the hunters. I can go no further." They sculled to the bank and set her down.

Now although they didn't know it, the maiden had sent out her soul back to the wigwam where they had lived all winter.

"Leave me here," she begged. "Say nothing about me to your father, for he would have nothing but scorn for me."

The younger brother was heartbroken.

"But I want you to stay with me forever!"

He did not realize that the maiden could not come with him because she wasn't a human being at all, but one of the forest spirits.

"It cannot be," replied the maiden. "You must leave me here."

The two brothers returned to their village. When they unpacked the canoe and their family saw the heap of fine furs that they had brought back with them, there was great rejoicing. During the celebrations, the elder brother could not keep quiet about how their luck had changed. He boasted about the strange maiden who had helped them in the depths of the winter.
His father trembled and grew very angry.

"All my life I have feared this very thing. My sons, that was no ordinary woman! You have been in the presence of a ghost, a forest spirit, a trickster of the snows! She is a Mikumwess, a witch that can do great harm to human beings."

The elder brother thought to himself, "She may have put a spell upon me. What a fool I've been, not to see it!"

However, the younger brother thought, "Maybe there's something in what father says. Maybe she is a forest spirit. But I didn't feel I was in danger at any time. She was my dearest friend, and I wanted her to be my wife." But he was young and was more inclined to listen to his father's fears than to the wisdom of his own heart.

The father made such a fuss about the maiden being a Mikumwess that the elder brother made a decision. "Come, brother!" he said one day. "Let's go hunting."

Taking some special arrows that were said to be good against witches, the elder brother began to track the maiden. The younger brother didn't know what they were hunting. Suddenly, the elder brother caught sight of the maiden bathing in the stream and drew his bow. At the same time, his brother saw her and started to call and wave to her, but too late! The elder brother's arrow had already flown.

Where the maiden had been swimming was now a confusion of water and feathers. Then they both saw her rise in the shape of a partridge into the sky.

The younger brother's heart was very heavy and he walked silently away. As he was sitting sadly in a birch clearing, a partridge landed at his feet and changed into the maiden. He threw himself at her feet and cried, "Forgive me! I didn't know what my brother intended! I never meant to hunt you, my dearest one!"

"Do not blame yourself," said the maiden. "I know everything. It was not your father's fault either, for he spoke from fear and ignorance. The past is forgotten already. I promise you that the best is yet to come."

And together they played in the woods, as once they had played in the snows, forgetting their sorrows. When the crows flew home to their nests, the young hunter said, I must return."

The maiden answered, "When you want to see me, come to the woods and I will be here. But, remember, do not marry anyone! Your father has a girl in mind and will speak of marriage soon." And she told him what his father would say, word for word.

He listened carefully, but was not surprised by her words. He knew for certain that she was, indeed, a forest spirit, but he was not afraid.
They kissed gently under the birch trees. "Remember," she reminded him, "if you marry, You will surely die!"

When the young man went home that night, his father spoke, just as the maiden said he would. "My son, I have found a wife for you and the wedding will be this week."

The young hunter nodded and said, "So be it!"

The young bride was brought from her family's wigwam and the wedding feast began. For four days everyone danced and ate and told stories. But on the last day, the young bridegroom began to feel ill. His family laid him upon a white bearskin, but he grew worse and worse. They tried all kinds of remedies to heal him.

But the young hunter's soul yearned for the partridge maiden and as he lay dying, his soul flew out of his body searching for her. At the moment he found her, his soul finally left his body, and they ran together through the woods, never to be parted again.

When his sorrowful family brought the bride to where the young hunter lay, they found that he was already dead. But his face was calm and happy, for he had found his true bride at last.

[canuck]

Great story Gazhekwe, thanks!

[gazhekwe]

How Mosquitos Came To Be

[Tlingit Tribe]

Long time ago there was a giant who loved to kill humans, eat their flesh, and drink their blood. He was especially fond of human hearts. "Unless we can get rid of the giant," people said, "none of us will be left," and they called a council to discuss ways and means.

One man said, "I think I know how to kill the monster," and he went to the place where the giant had last been seen. There he lay down and pretended to be dead.

Soon the giant came along. Seeing the man lying there, he said: "These humans are making it easy for me. Now I don't even have to catch and kill them; they die right on my trail, probably from fear of me!"

The giant touched the boday. "Ah, good,' he said, "this one is still warm and fresh. What a tasty meal he'll make; I can't wait to roast his heart."

The giant flung the man over his shoulder, and the man let his head hang down as if he were dead. Carrying the man home, the giant dropped him in the middle of the floor right near the fireplace. Then he saw that there was no firewood, and went to get some.

As soon as the monster had left, the man got up and grabbed the giant's huge skinning knife. Just then the giant's son came in, bending low to enter. He was still small as giants go, and the man held the big knife to his throat. "Quick, tell me, where's your father's heart? Tell me or I'll slit your throat!"

The giant's son was scared. He said: "My father's heart is in his left heel."
Just then the giant's left foot appeared in the entrance, and the man swiftly plunged the knife into the heel. The monster screamed and fell down dead.

Yet, the giant still spoke. "Though I'm dead, though you killed me, I'm going to keep on eating you and all the humans in the world forever!"

"That's what you think!" said the man. "I'm about to make sure that you never eat anyone again."

He cut the giant's body into pieces and burned each one in the fire. Then he took the ashes and threw them into the air for the winds to scatter. Instantly each of the particles turned into a mosquito. The cloud of ashes became a cloud of mosquitoes, and from their midst the man heard the giant's voice laughing, saying: "Yes, Ill eat you people until the end of time."

As the monster spoke, the man felt a sting, and a mosquito started sucking his blood, and then many mosquitoes stung him, and he began to scratch himself.

----Retold from English source, 1883.
Taken from "American Indian Myths and Legends" Selected and edited by Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz.

[gazhekwe]

Want to learn some Anishinaabemowin?

This page has a little audio-visual thing that goes through some useful words and phrases, spoken by Anton Treurer, who learned the language as an adult.

http://www.bemidjistate.edu/airc/shared_vision/

Here is a set from the story yesterday:

Zagime, Mosquito
Zagimekaa, There are many mosquitos

[gazhekwe]

Who Calls? Qu'Appelle?

By the time he finished his daily tasks, the light was failing. But everything he needed to accomplish before he made the journey to visit his betrothed was complete. He was eager to see his love, so he set out immediately, in spite of the growing darkness. He would paddle his canoe through the night and be with his beloved come the dawn.

The river sang softly to itself under the clear night sky. He glanced up through the trees, identifying certain favorite stars and chanting softly to himself, his thoughts all of her. Suddenly, he heard his named called out. He jerked back to awareness, halting his paddling and allowing the canoe to drift as he searched for the speaker.

"Who calls?" he asked, and then repeated the words in French: "Qu'Appelle?"

There was no response.

Deciding that he had imagined the incident, he took up his paddle and continued down the dark, murmuring river. A few moments later, he heard his name spoken again. It came from everywhere, and from nowhere, and something about the sound reminded him of his beloved. But of course, she could not be here in this empty place along the river. She was at home with her family.

"Who calls?" he asked again, and then repeated the words in French: "Qu'Appelle?"

His words echoed back to him from the surrounding valley, echoing and reverberating. The sound faded away and he listened intently, but there was no response.

The breeze swirled around him, touching his hair and his face. For a moment, the touch was that of his beloved, his fair one, and he closed his eyes and breathed deep of the perfumed air. Almost, he thought he heard her voice in his ear, whispering his name. Then the breeze died away, and he took up his paddle and continued his journey to the home of his love.

He arrived at dawn, and was met by his beloved's father. One look at the old warrior's face told him what had happened. His beloved, his fair one was gone. She had died during the night while he was journeying to her side. Her last words had been his name, uttered twice, just before she breathed her last.

He fell on his knees, weeping like a small child. Around him, the wind rose softly and swirled through his hair, across his cheek, as gentle as a touch. In his memory, he heard his beloved's voice, calling to him in the night. Finally, he rose, took the old warrior's arm and helped him back to his home.

To this day, travelers on the Qu'Appelle River can still hear the echo of the Cree warrior's voice as he reaches out to the spirit of his beloved, crying: "Qu'Appelle? Who calls?"

This story comes from Saskatchewan via S.E. Schlosser, Spooky Canada.

[gazhekwe]

I just met one of my favorite NDN singers, Harvey Dreaver. Turns out, he is here in metro Detroit. He has a CD out and drove over here in a snowstorm to share it with me.

It's a collection of 12 Round Dance songs. Round Dances are couples dances, or mixers, and the songs all have to do with aspects of love. Swoooon! I met his lovely wife and very cute kids, too. I hope they made it home OK on this snowy day.

This is Harvey Dreaver, singing Walk With Me, another Round Dance song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSnFzguL7JA

You can contact him on Facebook if you want to get a copy of his CD.

[gazhekwe]

[IMG]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/Buster/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot.png[/IMG]There are some pictographs at Hegman Lake, in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Minnesota, that are being interpreted as star charts by some astronomers. Each image represents a constellation and the position of the constellations relative to each other indicates a particular time of the year.

This Wikipedia item describes one set of images without interpretation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hegman_Lake_Pictogr

This image shows one panel of petroglyphs next to a star chart.

Attachment 8269

When matched to the images it is easy to see the Indian constellations matching the stars in some of the constellations as we know them in the winter sky, particularly Orion and Sirius. There is even some speculation that the big cross at the top could be the supernova of 1054 AD. Or perhaps it represents the Pleiades, “Bugonagiizhig -- Hole in the Sky,”
another winter constellation.

From a blog, Astro Bob: http://astrobob.areavoices.com/2009/...e-pictographs/

Bugonagiizhig, the Pleiades --The seven stars represent the opening between the Earth and the star world. This “Hole in the Sky” leads to the spirit world. Some Anishinabek call this constellation “Madoo’asinug—Sweating Stones.” The seven stars in this constellation represent
the seven stones used in the sweatlodge ceremony.

By Michael Wassegijig Price, for Mazina’iagn, Summer 2010, page 12

http://www.glifwc.org/publications/mazinaigan/Summer2010.pdf

[Jimaz]

the Pleiades --The seven stars....

The Pleiades are also known as The Seven Sisters. I seem to recall some mystery about why there are only six of these stars visible [[to the naked eye) today. What happened to the seventh? Could it be that the cultural memory of "The Seven Sisters" is deeper than the cultural memory of the disappearance of the seventh star? That's a rhetorical question.

By chance I was thinking of this while viewing The Pleiades earlier tonight. It should be just about overhead right now in a clear cold sky. It's a tight open cluster of stars at the end of one of the arms of Perseus.

[Jimaz]

I just now doublechecked.

The Pleiades is about ten degrees west of Zenith now. It's at the end of the eastern arm of Perseus.

It's a beautiful little cluster that most people never notice. Blue stars.

[gazhekwe]

You can see the Pleiades a lot better where there is no light pollution. If you can imagine, a thousand years ago, with no lights anywere at night, they were a lot more visible. In addition, hunters have their eyes trained to see detail at a distance, which might help with seeing dim stars. It is hard to see the Pleiades at all here in Detroit. For some reason, it is easier to spot them with peripheral vision, and once you find them, you can see them if you look directly.

[gazhekwe]

Carl Gawboy, an Anishinaabe artist from the Bois Forte Reservation, suggested that some of the cliff paintings found at Hegman Lake and on the shores of Lake Superior are actually star constellations. This knowledge came through his father and grandfather. Gawboy points out several rock paintings that can be mapped out in the star world: The Fisher, Great Panther, Sweatlodge, Wintermaker and Moose.
....
The most wellknown constellation is the Big Dipper or Ursa Major. To the Anishinaabe, the Big Dipper is part of the constellation "Ojiig'anung—Fisher Star."

"Ojiig'anung" lies just above the horizon from October to December. In December, it emerges in the northeast sky. Throughout the long winter, the Fisher makes its way across the night sky. The Anishinaabek knew that spring was close when "Ojiig'anung" was directly overhead in the early evenings.

Henry Rowe Schoolcraft [[1793-1864) had recorded the story of the "Ojiig'anung [[The Fisher)," but did not make the connection between the story and the rise of the constellation in early spring.

The rise of "Ojiig'anung" was also an indication that it was time to prepare for "Aninaatig ozhiga'igewin —tapping of the maple trees."

More from Michael Wassegijig Price, "Star Knowledge," Mazinigan, Summer 2010, page 12
http://www.glifwc.org/publications/m...Summer2010.pdf

[canuck]

I remember seeing a documentary about this sacred site in the Pontiac region of Quebec, and this is an interesting link about pictographs on rock cliffs that archeologists claim are 3000 years old.

http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/explo...in-in-canada14

[gazhekwe]

Interesting article, Canuck. It's too bad the pix can't really show the images. In honor of this site, I will make the next post be about Michepiishoo. There are some posts about this spirit already in here, when we were talking about the Anishinaabe link to Le Nain Rouge.

Migizi is not just any bird, he is the bald eagle.

[gazhekwe]

Post 81, by Sumas: The first legend of the white lady was from Michigan Haunts and Hauntings. This except is from Legends of our Land

THE SNAKE GOD OF BELLE ISLE

The Indian demi-god, Sleeping Bear, had a daughter so beautiful that he kept her out of the sight of men in a covered boat that swung on Detroit River, tied to a tree on shore; but the Winds, having seen her when her father had visited her with food, contended so fiercely to possess her that the little cable was snapped and the boat danced on to the keeper of the water-gates, who lived at the outlet of Lake Huron. The keeper, filled with admiration for the girl's beauty, claimed the boat and its charming freight, but he had barely received her into his lodge when the angry Winds fell upon him, buffeting him so sorely that he died, and was buried on Peach Island [[properly Isle au Peche), where his spirit remained for generations—an oracle sought by Indians before emprise in war. His voice had the sound of wind among the reeds, and its meanings could not be told except by those who had prepared themselves by fasting and meditation to receive them. Before planning his campaign against the English, Pontiac fasted here for seven days to "clear his ear" and hear the wisdom of the sighing voice.

But the Winds were not satisfied with the slaying of the keeper. They tore away his meadows and swept them out as islands. They smashed the damsel's boat and the little bark became Belle Isle. Here Manitou placed the girl, and set a girdle of vicious snakes around the shore to guard her and to put a stop to further contests. These islands in the straits seem to have been favorite places of exile and theatres of transformation. The Three Sisters are so called because of three Indian women who so scolded and wrangled that their father was obliged to separate them and put one on each of the islands for the sake of peace.

It was at Belle Isle that the red men had put up and worshipped a natural stone image. Hearing of this idol, on reaching Detroit, Dollier and De Galinee crossed over to it, tore it down, smashed it, flung the bigger piece of it into the river, and erected a cross in its place. The sunken portion of the idol called aloud to the faithful, who had assembled to wonder at the audacity of the white men and witness their expected punishment by Manitou, and told them to cast in the other portions. They did so, and all the fragments united and became a monster serpent that kept the place from further intrusion. Later, when La Salle ascended the straits in his ship, the Griffin, the Indians on shore invoked the help of this, their manitou, and strange forms arose from the water that pushed the ship into the north, her crew vainly singing hymns with a hope of staying the demoniac power.:


Post 82, by Gazhekwe: I can add a bit to that last story.. I may have read this here somewhere, the story of Le Nain Rouge.

As Sumas told above, the French priests smashed and sank the stone image, which was in honor of the water lynx [[or serpent as some tell it), Michipichou. Michipichou is a very strong and respected water spirit. Ever since, the spirit has had a grudge against the settlement of Detroit, and bad things can happen here. The son of the spirit will appear here before a disaster. Because the son is an Indian child, he was called le Nain Rouge in the French settlement.

Michipichu:



Michipichu is a very powerful and demanding spirit, provoking fear among those who fear to get on his wrong side. That is why the stone was placed there, cared for and shown every honor, to show respect for the spirit and assure good will. Worship is not the correct term, in the European sense. A stone has spirit, as does everything else. This stone was offered to Michipichu, but as a spirit in its own right. It would have ceremonies done to celebrate the stone and its purpose, and to honor Michipichu. [[mish e pee'shoo - Great Lynx), not to worship either in the Christian sense.

Last edited by gazhekwe; September 16th, 2009 at 11:21 AM.