Miin-giizis (Blueberry Moon)/Aabita-niibino-giizis / (Midsummer Moon), July 29, 2024
Booch da-gikinoo'amawind a'aw abinoojiinh gaa-miinigooyaang. Ishke mii ingiw giniigaaniiminaaning ingiw ebinoojiinyiwijig noongom ge-ni- bimiwidoojig gaa-izhi-miinigoowiziyang anishinaabewiyang. Ishke a'aw abinoojiinh mii-go gaye wiin ezhichiged ani-gikinawaabamaad eni-waabandang eni-izhichigenid iniw ogitiziiman miinawaa iniw ogikaawin.
- Anishinaabe gikino'igewin
("It is necessary that we teach our children what is given to us. Our children are the ones who will be carrying on the teachings we have been given as Indigenous Peoples into the future. Children learn from observing their parents and grandparents and in turn teach their children and grandchildren.")
- Ojibwe teaching Boozhoo!
Today I will tell you the story of a painting I completed six moons ago – titled Gizhigaabam A'aw Makwa Ishpiming ("Watching the Bear Above "). Not entirely coincidentally created in Makoons gaa- nitaawigiwaataw Giizis ("the moon when the bear cubs are born"), the painting tells the story of nookomis (a grandmother) taking two of her teenager oozhisimaag (grandchildren), a girl and her younger brother, on a starlit night to the top of a hill to show them the bear. Bear, in our culture, is a teacher who comes from the bosom of the earth but also lives in the sky.
“Inashke! Look! "Grandmother said, pointing at the Milky Way. "Awenenag igiwedig jiigewe-jiibay-ziibi? Who are those that you see along the side of the river of souls? Igiwedig gidoodeminaanig giizhigong giwiidosemigonaanig ... Our clans, our bloodlines over there in the sky, they walk with us ..." Then, turning to the siblings, her almond eyes reflecting the wisdom of a thousand moons, she asked: "Do you know what ingiw anangoog, those stars, teach us?”
“The stars give us directions” the oldest of the siblings replied. "Grampa said that there is no expression of death in our culture and language, and that the stars will never let us forget that. He also says that Our Peoples' stories, whispered by the spirits in the rocks, the trees, the lake, and the wind, resonate in the stars high above. He says that those tales, in the shape of constellations, form patterns in the night sky that help our People to orient themselves when they travel at night. He also said that the stars are relatives of ours who show us many things, such as how we must live on earth and also where our clans came from. " "Yes," her brother added, his eyes shining with excitement, "and Grampa also told us stories about how the Turtle created the Milky Way and about Winter Bringer, a shapeshifter who uses his giant arms to embrace the whole of the winter sky and points the souls of deceased to the hole in the sky, a doorway for the spirits to pass through, and about the great hunter Wenabozho and his brother Wolf, and how Wenabozho shoots arrows at the Great Lynx in the sky, and about the Wolf hunting the Moose, and about the Loon and the Crane where our leadership clans come from, and also" – and here his eyes glimmered – " about the playful Otter who lives side by side with the water clan people in the milky way river of souls, where he can be seen swimming and sliding up and down its shores, bringing the souls of our medicine people home."
Grandmother paused for a few moments, then continued: "The river of souls was created so we would be reminded of an important lesson.” Pointing to the horizon and tracing the outlines of the great river spiraling its way across the arc of the night, she said: “Try to picture it like a wide trail extending across the Galaxy like a huge, arched cedar tree with many branches that extend the same way you have forks in a trail. If you forget which way you're heading and wander off on one side you will be lost. She paused again. “If you ever need guidance all you have to do is look around you..."
Grandmother, smiling at the children's enthusiasm, nodded. She was silent for a long time. Then she said, as she kept looking skyward. “Geget noozisag, indeed my grandchildren. Haa mii sa geget igo, it is very true! A long time ago, Oshkikwe, a female creator who had the outward features of a cedar tree, and Mikinaak, the Snapping Turtle, a spirit whose name means "One Who Makes a Trail," were sent by Gichi-manidoo [1] to walk the night sky. Travelling side by side, leaving a shimmering river of stars and cedar leaves behind them, the Great Snapping Turtle and the Sky Woman etched a celestial trail named Jiibay-miikana (Path of Souls) – nowadays known as the Milky Way – spiraling through the Galaxy."
Grandmother paused for a few moments, then continued: "They created this river of souls so we would be reminded of an important lesson.” Pointing to the horizon and tracing the outlines of the great river spiraling its way across the arc of the night, she said: “Try to picture it like a wide trail extending across the Galaxy like a huge, arched cedar tree with many branches that extend the same way you have forks in a trail. If you forget which way you're heading and wander off on one side you will be lost. She paused again. “If you ever need guidance noozisag, all you have to do is look around you. Look at our Mother, the earth. She has left her wisdom everywhere you look – in the trees, yes, even in the rocks, the meadows, the streams, and the lakes. Then look at the stars. They will tell you about our past, where we came from, so that you can learn for yourself what Grandfather and I have been telling you.”
Grandmother turned around and looked at her grandchildren, then gestured toward the northern sky. "Now, look at the giiwedin anang, the returning-home-star," grandmother said as she pointed at the bright star known by most people as "Polaris" or "north star." "Being very close to the Earth's northern celestial pole, this star that twinkles within the River of Souls that you see flowing and stretching across the night sky, [2] hangs perfectly motionless from the sky vault as viewed from the ground! [3] As long as we can remember the returning-home-star, which sits at the tail end of the Maang constellation, [4] is used by our People in determining the four cardinal directions as well as navigating through Gichigamiin Aki at night! [5] It is to this star where the souls of our ancestors, those who went before us, travelled when their time on earth was up, and it is this place where we will return to as well as soon as our lives on aki (earth) are fulfilled and we walk on to the other side."
Anishinaabeg, our People, Grandmother said as she pointed out a formation of seven bright stars resembling an Ojiig (fisher marten) with an arrow sticking in its tail, "feel blessed daily to live at night under a blanket of countless stars knowing that as it is above, it is below; what is in giizhigong – the Sky World – is mirrored below, on agidakamig, – the Earth. This understanding, she explained, reflects the deep-felt connection that we, as Anishinaabeg, have with miziwekamig and the waawiyekamig. [6]
After a brief pause, nookomis looked thoughtfully at her grandchildren, and continued: "But tonight, noosizag (my grandchildren), I did not just bring you out here on this hill to talk about the returning-home-star, or about the fisher marten for that matter! Tonight, we will talk about the bears! Ni'aanh geget, yes, the bears! To the Anishinaabeg, makwag, as we call them, are icons of ziigwan, the spring season. Our People have always mirrored ourselves in Makwa's yearly pattern of hibernation, isolation, and emerging with new life as soon as the winter ends. This is why still today our ceremonies, initiation rituals, puberty rites, and a special women's ceremony called manidoo makwakwewowin miikana, or "spirit bear path," follow his cyclic pattern and invoke the bear's power of renewal. Regarding herb medicine, Makwa is considered by our healers as ogimaa (leader) of all animals; if a person dreams of Makwa he or she is chosen by the bear to be expert in the use of medicine made from plants and berries for curing illness."
"Anishinaabeg, our People, grandmother said as she pointed out a formation of seven bright stars resembling a fisher marten with an arrow sticking in its tail , feel blessed daily to live at night under a blanket of countless stars knowing that as it is above, it is below; what is in giizhigong – the Sky World – is mirrored below, on agidakamig, – the Earth. This understanding, she explained, reflects the deep-felt connection that we, as Anishinaabeg, have with the earth and the cosmos."
"Can you tell us more about the Spirit Bear Path, Nooko?" the girl, who had a curious spirit and an insatiable love for her grandmother's bear teachings, asked. I have heard that when a woman undergoes the bear path ceremony, she herself sort of turns into a bear?" Grandmother smiled, and said: "Eye' geget gi-debwe noozis, yes you are right my grandchild, the manidoo makwa ikwewowin miikana
is a very old women's ceremony that is still being conducted today. Soon you yourself will be invited by the Grandmother Bear spirit to walk her path as soon as it is time for you to journey to womanhood and become mako-wii. [7] The ceremony connects ikwewag (women) with their spirit by having them go out to seek the power and strength of Grandmother Bear. Walking the Spirit Bear Path gives women, in their roles of ikwe (woman) and weniijaanid (mother), and, among others, of odawemaan (sister), ozigosan (aunt), and odaangoshenyan (cousin), support throughout their lives as it strengthens their place and purpose within their kin and community..."
Grandmother was silent for a few moments, then continued: "To us, humans and bears are nearly identical; this is demonstrated in many of our aadizokaanan [8] about humans shapeshifting into bears and vice versa. Countless tales, ceremonies, songs, and depictions on birchbark and other items involve bears as “contraries,” embodiments of the paradoxical nature of life, and as bush doctors and healers who transform and renew life, randomly shapeshifting into humans and vice versa. In many occasions bear is addressed as “Anishinaabe”: A human being! In fact, bears are not just important figures in our aadizookewin (storytelling) and manidookewinan (ceremonies); makwa captures ojichaag (the “soul” or “essence”) of our spiritual Lodges, and of the Anishinaabeg as a whole."
Pointing her finger at the the north star, Grandmother continued: "Do you see the seven bright stars that dance around the giiwedin-anang? A long time ago, even before our ancestors migrated to the gichigamiin, the Great Lakes, they used to tell stories about Ishpiming Gichi Makwa, The Great Sky Bear! Throughout the long winters they observed how the Bear, which is part of the star formation nowadays called the Fisher by many of our fellow tribe people, made its way across the night sky. They knew that spring was close when Ishpiming Gichi Makwa was directly overhead in the early evenings. To them, the rise of Ishpiming Gichi Makwa was also a reminder that it was time to prepare for aninaatig ozhiga'igewin: the tapping of the maple trees."
Grandmother, noticing how two pairs of questioning eyes glowing in the dark beside her stared at her storytelling lips, smiled. "Our ancestors knew that what happens in the Sky World foretells events that will take place on the Earth," she said. "They understood that the life cycle of the bears on earth reflected and paralleled the seasonal dance of the great sky bear around the giiwedin-anang! The bear that dwells in the sky cares for the earth from its giizhiig wiigimaanan (sky lodges) and the earthly bears reflect the movements of their cousin in the sky by digging for medicinal plants in the Earth in spring and summer; and also by finding a resting place in the earth's bosom when it is time to hibernate. Yet, the Earth Bears also care for the sky! Since the first humans came from the sky, earthly bears by extension still care for and look after their descendants, the Anishinaabeg…"
"Our ancestors knew that what happens in the Sky World foretells events that will take place on the Earth. They understood that the life cycle of the bears on earth reflects and parallels the seasonal dance of the great sky bear around the north star! The bear that dwells in the sky cares for the earth from its sky lodges and the earthly bears reflect the movements of their cousin in the sky by digging for medicinal plants in the Earth in spring and summer; and also by finding a resting place in the earth's bosom when it is time to hibernate. Yet, the Earth Bears also care for the sky! Since the first humans came from the sky, earthly bears by extension still care for and look after their descendants, the Anishinaabeg…"
Grandmother smiled again. Her friendly almond-shaped eyes absorbing the round, attentive faces of her grandchildren illuminated by the light of the countless stars that filled the Sky Lodge, she continued: "Haw sa! The bears' medicine comes to us through visions and dreams! Ever since the days of old, the Anishinaabe Peoples have dreamed of Makwa as offering to give medicines for the healing of man. To this day, bears are considered by mashkikikwewag and mashkikiwininiwag (female and male herb specialists) as ogimaag (leaders) of all animals. When a person dreams of Makwa they know they are chosen by the bear to be expert in the use of medicine made from plants and berries for curing illness."
A long silence ensued, which was broken by the youngest of the siblings, who possessed the same curious nature as his sister. "But why do our People nowadays see the Bear as a fisher marten, nooko?" he asked. "Grampa told us a story the other day, about the origin of the fisher star and why we can still see him up there as a fisher with an arrow sticking in his tale."
Grandmother closed her eyes and chuckled, as if she suddenly remembered something. After a few moments she opened her eyes and said: "Many strings of lives ago, there were no stars in the sky. Only two moons! With his bow and arrows, and guided by omishoomisan, his grandfather, a young Anishinaabe boy named Makoons (Little Bear) shot at one of the moons, shattering her to form many stars. Next, Makoons and his father, whose name was Gichi-Makwa, ascended up into the sky to make a home among the newly formed stars. Thus, Makoons and omishoomisinan were responsible for the formation of the Big and Little Bear...”
Grandmother contemplated her grandson's question for a moment, staring off into the starlit night. Then she said: “"Ojiig Anang," or Fisher Star, is just one name that our People throughout the ages have given to the seven bright stars that you see up there. "Big Dipper" is how the white man calls the Fisher Star because to them, together, these stars take the form of a gwaaba'igan, or dipper, with three stars representing the handle and the remaining stars its bowl. The Big Dipper is part of the greater constellation that is often referred to with its Latin name "Ursa Major," or "Greater She-Bear." The Big Dipper is just a fraction of the white man's Greater She-Bear, which counts at least 30 times as many stars! Nowadays most of our storytellers refer to Big Dipper as being an Ojiig (Fisher Marten) with an arrow in its tail, because, as the story goes, when the angry sky spirits caught the daring Ojiig opening baskets filled with summer birds and fowls, setting them free and letting warm breezes descend to the frozen earth below, they hunted him down and wounded him with their arrows. Our distant ancestors, however, who a long time ago arrived from the west and the north bringing with them a body of stories that goes back in very ancient times, did not always look at the star world with the same eyes as we do, and when they looked at the star formation that we nowadays call the Fisher Star they saw an entirely different story..."
"What story is that, nooko?" asked the girl. Grandmother closed her eyes and chuckled, as if she suddenly remembered something. After a few moments she opened her eyes and said: "Many strings of lives ago, there were no stars in the sky. Only two moons! With his bow and arrows, and guided by omishoomisan, his grandfather, a young Anishinaabe boy named Makoons (Little Bear) shot at one of the moons, shattering her to form many stars. Next, Makoons and his father, whose name was Gichi-Makwa, ascended into the sky to make a home among the newly formed stars. Thus, Makoons and omishoomisinan were responsible for the formation of the Big and Little Bear...”
Again, Grandmother closed her eyes. Then she gently looked at her grandchildren, and with a soft voice and eyes filled with memories she told them: "When I was a child, my great grandmother told me this, and many more stories about the great bear in the sky, which in turn, had been passed on to her by a long line of forebears. My great grandmother told me that the old ones who for many generations traveled over ice prior to their arrival in the Great Lakes area, [9] associated the bowl and the handle of the Big Dipper –- which we nowadays call the Fisher Star – with a giant long-tailed bear. They saw in it the outline of a bear, which was due to the way the stars continuously change position in the night sky. To them, it was Gichi-makwa , and in particular its head, that heralded the end of winter. The old ones also noticed that as we move from autumn to winter the stars of the Gichi-makwa rotate from west to east, resembling the way a bear changes its stance, from a four-legged to two-legged position. They viewed the Gichi-makwa – which the white man sees as the bowl of a dipper –, as representing the body of the bear itself, while the three stars that nowadays are considered to be the tail of the fisher marten, represented to them hunters chasing the sky bear. "
The children, impressed by the bear tale, were silent for a while. Gazing at the Gichi-makwa that shone brightly overhead, seemingly diving toward the earth with the three hunters and their dogs on his tail, the girl asked: "But when did the bear in the sky become a fisher marten, grams?" Grandmother looked in the distance for a while. "Haw!" she said, "The answer to that lies in the bear's tail. It is difficult to say when exactly our People started to see the bear as a fisher, but this must have been around the time, not very long after the last ice age ended, when the star world went through some changes. Throughout time some stars disappeared from sight, and since Anishinaabe narratives have always adopted new natural circumstances the people saw themselves faced with, the characters in the narratives, and in some cases their physical appearance or even the degree of the brightness of the stars that represented them, changed accordingly."
"Why did the hunters chase the sky bear, grams?" asked the boy, his eyes wide with curiosity and fascination. "And did they manage to catch him? Did they kill the bear with their arrows, just like the angry sky spirits did to the Fisher Marten?" Grandmother contemplated the boy's questions for a while before she answered. "Gaawiin," she said, no, those hunters up there never managed to kill the bear, although the story goes that one of their arrows did penetrate its thick fur. I will tell you why they decided to chase him." She paused, closing her eyes as if searching her memory. Then she continued: "Once upon a time long ago, an angry gichi-makwa roamed the land, pillaging and destroying everything he encountered and wreaking havoc among the villages and encampments of the Anishinaabeg. After a council was formed the Anishinaabeg sent seven of their bravest gaayosedjig (hunters) accompanied by their giiwosewasimoog (hunting dogs) after the bear. Soon they found the gichi-makwa and they started to shoot arrows at him. But when one of their arrows wounded him, Gichi-makwa ran away fast, bleeding from his wound. So fast ran he that before the gaayosedjig could blink twice he had ascended high up ishpiming (into the sky). Next, without hesitation, the seven hunters and their dogs followed the Gichi-makwa into the sky! Four hunters got lost, but the remaining hunters prevailed, and to this day they still follow him through the night sky...Now, if you look closely at the ishpiming gichi-makwa," – Grandmother pointed at the Big Dipper – " the three stars that resemble a fisher's tail represent the gaayosedjig chasing Gichi-makwa, and the dimmer stars around the three hunter stars are said to represent the hunting dogs. And to this day the Gichi-makwa goes round and round in the northern night sky with the hunters and their dogs chasing him. And every fall as Gichi-makwa comes low to the horizon its wound leaks a few drops of blood. It is this blood that each fall changes the color of the leaves on the trees…[10]
The children, impressed by the bear tale, were silent for a while. Gazing at the Gichi-makwa that shone brightly overhead, seemingly diving toward the earth with the three hunters and their dogs on his tail, the girl asked: "But when did the bear in the sky become a fisher marten, grams?"
Grandmother looked in the distance for a while before she answered. "Haw!" she said, "The answer to that lies in the bear's tail. It is difficult to say when exactly our People started to see the bear as a fisher, but this must have been around the time, not very long after the last ice age ended, when the star world went through some changes. Throughout time some stars disappeared from sight, and since Anishinaabe narratives have always adopted new natural circumstances that the people saw themselves faced with, the characters in the narratives, and in some cases their physical appearance or even the degree of the brightness of the stars that represented them, changed accordingly."
The siblings, now really excited by the idea of stars disappearing from sight over time, started chatting to one another. Grandmother sat them down with a brisk gesture of her hand, and said: "Bizaan omaa nanaamadabin, noozisag. Bizindoshin! (Sit quietly, grandchildren. Listen to me!)"
Grandmother pointed at a very bright star a little left to the Big Dipper. "Na! Inaabin! Look! Look there!" she said. "Look at the three hunter stars that chase the Great Bear. See that they make a curve, or arc? Extend the stars past the end of curve, and you’ll reach the copper star that the ancient Greeks considered to be a bear's guardian! This star, that as you can see has a very bright red-orange color, moves through the Sky Lodge with great speed! It is therefore not hard to imagine this star as one who follows, and guards, the bear. "
Clearing her throat, she continued: "To be able to understand what happened, I will first tell you something about how the old ones lived and how they saw the world. You have to understand that our distant ancestors walked the land in circumstances that were much harsher than they are now. The land was still covered by great masses of ice for the biggest part of the year and not all stars in the night sky had the same position they have now. Bears looked different back then; they were much bigger, and it is said that Makwa, before he was tricked by a very clever nigig (otter), had a long tail. In a not-so-distant past we even still had a clan called ginwaanowe (long tail), which is perhaps the last remnant of this long-ago era." Again, Grandmother cleared her throat, then continued: "Now. Since our environment has always been mirrored in the night sky, our ancestors of long ago saw the bear in the sky as a reflection of the terrestrial bear with its long tail. The tail of this celestial gichi-makwa was represented by a long tail of eleven shiny stars that had the color of copper. This copper tail extended all the way to the bright star called Arcturus on the white man's star map, and which they consider to be part of the Greater Bear constellation." Grandmother looked at the siblings, then said, smiling: "But you know what is funny? It was not just our ancestors who saw a bear in the night sky. Even the Ancient Greeks identified Ursa Major, the Greater Bear constellation, as a bear, and they too, has many stories about him. Some historians believe this tradition dates back at least 10,000 years! The name Arcturus is derived from an old Greek word which means "Keeper of the Bear"!" Grandmother pointed at a very bright star a little left to the Big Dipper. "Na! Inaabin! Look! Look there!" she said. "Look at the three hunters that chase the Gichi-makwa. See that they make a curve, or arc? Extend the hunters past the end of the curve, and you’ll reach the copper star that the ancient Greeks considered to be a bear's guardian! This star, that as you can see has a very bright red-orange color, moves through the Sky Lodge with great speed! It is therefore not hard to imagine this star as one who follows, and guards, the bear."
"But how did nigig trick the bear, grandmother? And where is the long tail of the Great Bear now?" asked the boy, his excitement growing with each word grandmother spoke. "I do not see it." "How nigig tricked the bear and clipped his tail is a story for another day, noozis," Nookomis replied, smiling. "As for the Gichi-makwa's long tail, it is still there, but nowadays it is invisible from where we stand. The long tail of Gichi-makwa was a consequence of the north celestial pole being much closer to the Gichi-makwa some thousands of years ago. When the celestial pole was still near the Gichi-makwa, all eleven stars of its tail remained above the horizon year-round, including the copper star Arcturus. This proximity brought the copper star above the horizon for a much longer part of the year, which is likely why he long-tailed bear was described as having a tail made of copper...Now, in the old days, Gichi-makwa was sometimes observed as a bear sitting above the ground and other times sometimes below the ground. So, throughout the ages, the copper star sank farther and farther below the horizon, and so the connection between it and the Great Bear became gradually severed. As soon as contact with the white man happened – but possibly long before that, at least a thousand years – the tail of the Great Celestial Bear got "clipped," and the Gichi-makwa was no longer viewed as being attached to the copper star."
"So, it is all a matter of time and latitude, then?" asked her grandson. "Eye,'" said grandmother, smiling at the boy's cleverness. "Latitude in the long-ago past allowed more of the bear's tail to remain above the horizon. This means that Anishinaabe-related Peoples far north such as our relatives the Nii'inaweg [11] and the Askhimeg [12] were able to maintain the long tail tradition longer than our People, who originally lived more to the south."
Grandmother was silent for a moment as she gazed at the night sky, seemingly in deep thought. Suddenly she started to speak again. "Haw dash" she said as she pointed her lips toward the Great Bear that sat in the high north, "Well now, look at the outer two stars in the bowl of the Gichi-makwa, those stars farthest from the handle. See how they point to Giiwedin-anang, the North Star? Giiwedin-anang, the only star in the great sky lodge that never moves and always stays in the same spot, is the last star in the handle of the ladle-shaped star formation that you see next to the Fisher Star."
"Oh!" the girl exclaimed, "I remember grandfather telling us that that one is called Maang, the Loon!" "Aanh!" grandmother answered, "that group of stars, which has a nearly similar pattern as the Fisher Star but from where we stand looks smaller in size, is just the brightest part of the Loon, or Ursa Minor as the white man calls it. Many of our People who refer to the Great Bear as the Fisher Marten Star perceive that seven-star asterism to be a little fisher. To them, it is known as Ojiig-anangoons, or “Fisher Little Star.” Which makes sense because as you can see that it has seven stars with four in its bowl, just like the big Fisher. Another name that our People use is Ojiigansikwe, or Little Fisher Woman, which refers to a beautiful story about a young woman who fell in love with the Big Fisher in the sky and stayed at his side after jealous sky spirits killed him."
"Oh!" the youngest of the two siblings exclaimed, "how does that story go? Tell us gramma, please?" "Gaawiin noozis," grandmother replied, smiling, pinching her grandson's cheek. "That, too, is a story for another day."
"But if our ancestors saw a bear in the Fisher Star, and this bear looks so much like the little fisher woman, why did they not call it little bear?" the girl asked. "Aaw, noozis" grandmother replied, surprise showing in her eyes. "They actually did call it makoons, or "little bear! I remember when I was your age, inga [13] and nookomis [14] told me and my siblings stories of the little bear that walked with his father in the northern night sky. They also told me about Giiwedin-anang, the home-coming star. The home-coming star, which the white man calls Polaris or Pole Star or North Star, is part of the Little Bear. Or, if you choose to see the little bear as a loon, you can see how it forms the end of the loon’s tail."
"Can you tell us more about the little bear, gramma?" the boy asked with eyes that sparkled like the stars that shone above him. "Eye', geget noozis," grandmother said, smiling. But it will be the last story for tonight. We should go back to the house. Grampa will be worried by now and wonder where we are. But before we go, I will tell you the story of an Ojibwe boy who turned into the little bear in the sky."
"Can you tell us more about the little bear, gramma?" the boy asked with eyes that sparkled like the stars that shone above him. "Eye', geget noozis," grandmother said, smiling. But it will be the last story for tonight. We should go back to the house. Grampa will be worried by now and wonder where we are. But before we go, I will tell you the story of an Ojibwe boy who turned into the little bear in the sky."
"Many strings of lives ago, there were no stars in the sky. Only two moons! With his bow and arrows, and guided by omishoomisan (his grandfather), a boy named Makoons (Little Bear) sat in his canoe and shot at one of the dibiki-giizisoog, shattering her to form many anangoog (stars). Amid the glittering lights that lit up the night sky an exceptionally large wiigiwaam (lodge) magically emerged in the middle of the lake; a bright fire burned inside it. Suddenly, tayaa! a tall giizhikaatig (northern white cedar) grew out of the smoke hole of the wiigiwaam, and its top reached all the way into the sky! Marvelling at this mystic appearance, Makoons and his grandfather, whose name was Gichi-Makwa (Big Bear), steered their canoe toward the Lodge in the lake. At arrival they entered the big lodge and climbed the tree of life that was in there. Through the smoke hole, up, climbing the tree that went straight through the Hole in the Sky, they ascended into the sky to make a home among the newly formed anangoog. Thus, Makoons and omishoomisinan were responsible for the formation of the Big and Little Bear, who, to this day, dance together, moving around the eternal pole which is the Returning Home Star..."
The boy and his sister, captivated by the magic story their grandmother had just related to them, gazed at both asteroids that shone straight above them for a long time. "Ahaaw, ambe noozisag. Nimbagosendaan gii-minwenimeg iniw makwa aadizookaanan (Well, let's go my grandchildren, I hope you liked these sacred bear tales!)," Grandmother said. Her fingers softly touching the siblings' shoulders she gently guided them off the hill, toward the valley where her house sat in a grove of white birch trees, which seemed to glow in the bright starlight. A shooting star flashed overhead, southward bound into the direction of the valley. Its trail of light was brilliant with a magic glow that filled the great sky lodge. A split second before it streaked over the house and disappeared behind the horizon she noticed her husband, standing on the porch waving at them...
NOTES:
[1] Gichi-mandoo: In recent, post-contact Anishinaabe culture, the word Gichi-manidoo is used to denote the Creator of all things and the Giver of Life and is sometimes translated as the "Great Mystery." Historically, Anishinaabe people believed in a variety of manidoog (spirits), whose images were placed near doorways for protection. ^
[2] River of Souls, Jiibay-ziibi in Anishinaabemowin (the Ojibwe language) is how the Milky Way is called. ^
[3]Traditionally, the Anishinaabeg envision the stars to hang from the sky vault – as if they were attached with invisible strings to Gichi-manidoo, the Great Mystery of the Universe that sits on top of the waawiyekamig (sky lodge). ^
[4]Maang is translated into English as "the Loon." It is this constellation – see the red loon with the North Star in its tail – where our leader clans come from. The same goes for Ajiijaak/Bineshi Okanin,“Cygnus,” depicted in the illustration as a red crane flying. In several traditional Ojibwe stories the Ojiig-anangoons ("Little Fisher Star"; called called Ursa Minor and Little Dipper on the Western star maps on Western star maps) represents the brightest seven stars in Maang. The Maang constellation/Ojiig-anangoons asterism is notable for marking the location of the north celestial pole, as it is home to Giiwedin-anang (North Star/Polaris), which is a bright star shining in the loon's tail. ^
[5] Gichigamiin Aki: The Great Lakes. ^
[6] Miziwekamig: Literally "Everywhere on Earth." Waawiyekamig: the cosmos. Literally "Round Earth." ^
[7] Makowii: "Bear Woman," a term denoting a girl who is in her moon-time. ^
[8] Aadizookaan, plural aadizookaanan: sacred story; traditional story, a teaching tale best heard during the winter and traditionally recalling a time when animals were still seen as spirits that had not all changed into the forms they have now. ^
[9] The old ones who for many generations traveled over ice: A possible reference to the pre-Columbian, Proto-Algonquian forebears of the Anishinaabeg; those who migrated at the last Ice Age's end from the high Arctic into the western regions of Turtle Island (North America), and from there on out into the Midwest and farther east. ^
[10] It must be noted that at least some Anishinaabe aadizookaanan (traditional stories) are less "traditional" than they seem as they testify to a cross-cultural transcendence of tradition. In the case of the above-told gichi-makwa story, some would argue that the hunters chasing the sky bear is really an Ojibwe retelling of the Greek Boötes the "Bear Driver" myth. ^
[11] Nii'inaweg: Ininewak, generally called "Cree." ^
[12] Askhimeg: an Ojibwe name for the Mi'kmaq People, indigenous to the areas of Canada's Atlantic Provinces, the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec, as well as the northeastern region of Maine. ^
[13]Inga: my mother. ^
[14] Nookomis: my grandmother. ^
>Read the episodes of the "Star Stories" series published so far:
Star Stories: Mishibizhiw and the Great Passing of the Spirit Rabbit\
Star Storis: The Great Sky Bear That Lives Among the Stars
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