Waagaabagaa-giizis (Leaves Turning Moon) / Manoominike-giizis (Ricing Moon) - October 8, 2024
Apane dabasenindizon. Gego ani-izhaakegon Wiindigoo endaad.
"Always be modest. Don’t go where the Wiindigoo lives!"
- Anishinaabe sayingA word about Donald Trump, who may well win the November 2024 election. If this happens, the nation is guaranteed four years of total chaos and division.
In the old days, Anishinaabe parents and grandparents used to tell their children and grandchildren, “Betag! Gaagige weweni onji ashwaabam wiindigoo! Aabanaabin bezhigo bimose’an ingoji! Be careful! Beware of the Wiindigoo! Always look out for him! Look behind you when you walk by yourself!”
A Wiindigoo, in Anishinaabe lore, is a malevolent cannibalistic spirit into which humans may transform, or which may possess humans. Originally from the red planet Ishpiming Wiindigoo (Betelgeuse), the Wiindigoo came to earth during the Last Ice Age, for which reason he usually appears in the winter.
Anishinaabeg believe that any type of creature — not just humans — can be a wiindigoo, and there have been many accounts of a psychosis that gets into the brain of creatures and causes instant and intense sanity. Anishinaabe author Louise Erdrich called it — in the context of settler and land hunger — wiindigoo psychosis.
Donald Trump, in my opinion, is the modern-day Wiindigoo, an Orange Glutton in multiple ways. He is the ultimate epitome of ruthless and desperately wicked settler mentality. He is is a narcissistic, tyrannic cult leader who eats people. If he gets his way he will swallow up about everything that is decent and valuable in our world. He will bring the world more conflict and plunge humanity in even worse wars that we're facing now. He will cut down the rights of women, Lhbtiq+ers, and about every ethnic minority in the US, including those of Native Americans. He will implement Project 2025, which will catapult us all back into the dark Middle ages and, eventually, forward into the next Ice Age. He will fill his pockets with even more money, judges, yea-sayes, and strawmen and hunt down his political opponents as if they were criminals and terrorists. And his economic regime, according to several economists and thinktanks, will inflame the nation’s debt burden while ultimately raising costs for a vast majority of Americans.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan group that seeks lower deficits, found that Trump’s various plans could add as much as $15 trillion to the nation’s debt over a decade. That is nearly twice as much as the economic plans being proposed by Trump's political rival, Kamala Harris.
Also, an analysis from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that Trump’s tax and tariff plans would, on average, amount to a considerable tax increase for every income group except the top 5 percent of highest-earning Americans.
And yet, the majority of Americans believe in his lies and ramblings and want him back in the Oval Office. Perhaps they should consult an Anishinaabe or Cree storyteller and have them tell Wiindigoo tales.
Illustration: "The Coming of the Orange Wiindigoo" ©2024 Zhaawano Giizhik