Miskomini-giizis (Raspberry Moon)/Manoominike-giizis (Ricing Moon) (August 27, 2024)
THE SPIRIT OF THE TREES IN MY LIFE
A tree in all its beauty grows strong roots
Safe, deep within mother earth
What happens around it
may leave gnarly scars on the outside.
But still the tree grows tall and strong
performing insurmountable tasks in its lifetime.
Today I give thanks to the spirit of the trees
in my life.
- Simone McLeod
This story is dedicated to my friend Michel Sutherland, whose Inino roots are like those of the tamarack tree – strongly tied to the mashkiig aki (swamp land) of northern Turtle Island.
Chapter 1: Migizi's Vision
Many moons ago, in the time that has become known as the Sixth Fire, Migizi, the Bald Eagle, flew over Gichigami, the Great Lake. Suddenly he heard a voice from the east that said:
“If the Anishinaabe people accept the promise of a new way and abandon the old teachings, then the struggle of the Fifth Fire will be with the people for many generations. But take heed! The promise that comes will prove to be a false promise. All those who accept this promise will cause the near destruction of the People."
Then, as soon as the voice had echoed away toward the west, Migizi beheld an izhinamowin (vision).
In this izhinamowin, he saw that the Anishinaabeg were living all over the earth. One day, they stopped living together. They stopped giving thanks and properly speaking Anishinaabemowin, the language of their ancestors. They lost track of mino-misko-manidoo miikana, the good red spirit road. As he was circling high above the lake, it became clear to Migizi that the promise of the Fifth Fire had come in a false way and the near-destruction of the Anishinaabe way of life seemed inevitable!
Sadly, Migizi saw that the symbol of the cross had replaced the ancient emblems of the Midewiwin. The old virtues of communing with the animals and the trees and the stars and the spirits of the land had nearly been forgotten, and the abinoonjiinyag (children) were taken away from the teachings of the gichi-ayaa'ag (Elders). Grandsons and granddaughters turned against the Elders. The Elders lost their reason for living and their purpose in life. A new sickness had come among the Anishinaabeg and the balance of many people became disturbed. Aaniin da naa aapidakamig ezhiwebak, the Eagle said to himself, "Why on earth is this happening?"
Still circling high, Migizi saw that the manidoog (Spirits) that inhabit all four corners of the Earth, too, became alarmed and as they moved about the Earth they called the Anishinaabeg. No one answered... The mitigwakik (sacred waterdrum) had stopped sounding its mighty voice across the lakes and hills and river valleys and even the echo of its pulse had ceased from the Spirits’ ears. Anishinaabeg had turned their back on the ways of the Midewiwin and they had forgotten the lessons about bimaadiziwin (how to live a good life).
The Spirits realized that the Anishinaabeg had left the good red road and forgotten where they came from. They had forgotten how to speak Anishinaabemowin properly, the language of the ancestors had become strange to their ears, nor could they make their own words understood by the ancestors.
The Anishinaabeg had even become deaf to the voices of the manidoog!
In his vision, now being very worried because of what he saw beneath him, Migizi noticed that the manidoog decided to hold a meeting. They talked for four days and while they were talking, everything in Creation stopped working. Every living being, even those that lived beneath the Earth and the lakes and the rivers – enh, even the jiibayag, the spirits of the ancestors – wondered what was going on. Everyone asked Misoomish Migizi, the Grandfather eagle, to report to the manidoog about what was going on with the Anishinaabeg.
The manidoog reached a decision: they gave Grandfather Migizi four days to look for Anishinaabeg who remembered their teachings and their language.
Still dreaming, circling above the great lake, Migizi started his journey to look for someone who could speak the language and remembered their responsibilities.
On the first day, Migizi flew to the east, but he could not find anyone who remembered their responsibilities.
On the second day, Migizi flew to the south, but he could not find anyone who still remembered their responsibilities.
On the third day Migizi flew to the west, but he could not find anyone who still remembered their responsibilities.
At the dawn of the fourth day, Migizi flew to the north, but he could not find anyone who still remembered their responsibilities.
The vision had made Migizi very tired, but he knew he couldn't rest now. Soaring high above a great turtle-shaped island * sitting in Gichi-aazhoogami-gichigami ("Great Crosswaters Sea"; present-day Lake Huron), he suddenly saw smoke rise from a ravine – which was so deep that, to him. it looked like the the womb of mother earth herself!
Migizi flew toward the smoke that spiraled up from the bottom of the ravine. As he got closer, he heard the high-pitched voice of a gwiiwizens (boy) echoing between the high rock walls. The boy, who sat in front of a makeshift nisawa'igan (tipi), offered asemaa (tobacco) to the bright red-orange flames of a blazing campfire. A miigis (seashell) hovered over his head. Migizi heard the boy chanting in Anishinaabemowin, shaking a turtle shell rattle and proclaiming the following words:
Gwaashkominode’ewashkina’ injichaagonaanig
Ji mino-inaadiziwinangen.
"Fill our spirits with good
Upright then may be our lives."
Gakina gegoon bimaadan
Gakina awiya bimaadisiwag.
"Everything is alive
Everyone is alive."
Migizi lit down on a nearby mountain ash and spoke to the boy, asking why he sat there alone in the belly of the earth, praying. The boy explained to him that he had sought refuge on the island from the evil forces that had taken possession of his People's lives. Here, on the bottom of the ravine, he mourned the loss of his parents. A great evil had entered the hearts and minds of the people from his oodena (village) on the mainland, he said. This evil had led to destructive behavior and sickness and famine, which eventually killed nearly every one of his People, including his parents. He told Migizi he had great love for his People and asked him to help him destroy the evil that had come to his oodena – this "place of many hearts," where his family which he loved so much used to collect in happier times...
As Migizi was pondering the boy's plea, the Sun emerged from behind the horizon, casting his bright yellow light upon the island. Migizi addressed his Grandfather, asking him for instructions. Mishoomish Giizis (Grandfather sun) began to sing. Then, tayaa! in front of the boy's eyes, an eye-blinding electromagnetic light started to radiate from within the eagle, and in less than no time it transmuted into a gichi-binesi (great thunderbird)! Next, Misoomish Giizis, using a language the boy did not understand, instructed the newly created thunder being to scorch the island and all the land surrounding the lake with his lightning arrows and create a flood that would eliminate the great evil that had invaded the world. Hereupon the Thunderbird flapped its gigantic wings, and a fierce storm began to arise that caused trees to sway and winds to rage!
Chapter 2: The Shaking Tamarack
The boy, alarmed by of the eagle's sudden metamorphosis into a thunder being, climbed out of the ravine and asked the help of the tree spirits. He was being visited by many manidoowaatigoon. Wiigwaas the birch tree was there, joined by giizhikaatig (cedar), azaadi (poplar), maanazaadi (balsam poplar), makominagaawanzh (mountain ash), inininaatig (maple), zhingob (fir), mina'igwaatig (white spruce), mitigomizh (oak), gaawemizh (beech), and many, many more. All these tree beings surrounded the boy to protect him from the wrath of the Thunder Being! One of the beings that came to help him was a tree manidoo that lived in the swamp, a deciduous conifer called by our People, depending on the dialect spoken, mashkiigwaatig or maskiigwaandag (both meaning "swamp tree"), or biskiiginaatig ("bark sheet folded by hand tree"). ** "Niin, niwii-wiidookaage jiigashkiig (Me, I want to help from the swamp)," said the tamarack to the boy.
Next, amid the terrible thunderstorm that created series of flashing thunderbolts and strong, gusty downdraft winds scourging the earth and surrounding waters, the Manidoowaatig (Spirit Tree) from the swamp began to shake. At first, its needles rustled softly against the violent wind that but soon the tree started to shake with increasing force. Then, shaking frantically, the tree, now releasing great power, pushed and fended off the raging storm caused by the thunder being. Thanks to him, the earth was spared a terrible fate. After the storm the Thunderbird, whose animikii-ishkode (fire power) was no match for the tree's strong medicine, screeched in exasperation and retreated to the top of a high table mountain in the west.
After the great storm had dissipated and the earth and the lakes had returned to calm again, the boy, realizing the earth had been washed clean of the evil that had plagued his People, started to sing a song of gratitude:
Aanike-mishoomisaabaneg
Gidoodeminaanig megwe-anangoog
Gimaamoyaawaminaanig.
Gakina-awiya indinawemaaganag
Niiwing inakakeyaa wenaanimak
Gimaamoyaawaminaanig.
Gigekinoo'amaagedinaanig noopiming gaye mashkiigong
Manidoog Mitigong
Gimaamoyaawaminaanig.
"Our ancestors
Our bloodlines, our clans in the Star World
We thank them all.
All Our Relatives
In the Four Directions
We thank them all.
Our teachers in the forests and swamps
The Spirits in the Trees
We thank them all."
The spirits, upon hearing the boy singing and giving thanks in Anishinaabemowin, understood that there was still hope for Anishinaabeg. They understood that, after the terror of the storm, the hearts and minds of the Anishinaabeg were straight and clean again. A New People would emerge who would retrace their steps to find the wisdom that their predecessors had left by the side of the good red road. They also saw that the continuation of the Anishinaabe language was ensured.
The world could begin again...
From that day on, the Anishinaabeg people honored the manidoog by erecting a manidoomashkiigwaatig (ceremonial tamarack tree pole) in the center of their villages and towns. The pole reminds us of how the Thunderbird had nearly destroyed the earth, and also how the boy and the Tamarack Tree saved them from total extinction.
To this day, in order to keep our homes and villages safe, we place a manidoomashkiigwaatig in our oodenawan (villages and towns).
The above story is told in many ways. Also, the Anishinaabeg still honor the tradition of erecting the spirit pole – some call it izhiwebaatig (a weather pole) or niiskaadaatig (bad weather pole) – in the center of our communities to keep bad weather away...
Epilogue: A New Dream
Thus was Migizi's vision, which had prompted him to find the dawn that marked a new beginning for the Anishinaabeg Peoples. His metamorphosis into a Thunder being created a terrible storm that ravaged the land and the lakes, but when, thanks to the courageous boy hiding in the ravine and the tamarack tree that came to his rescue, the storm diminished and finally passed, the world became green and happy again and the Anishinaabeg, their hearts and minds once filled with confusion and turmoil, found inner peace again and returned to the good path.
Thanks to the boy whom Migizi had found on the heart-shaped island in the Great Crosswater Sea, mourning the death of his parents and praying and singing for his People, the Anishinaabeg realized it was time for them to regain their responsibilities and light the Seventh Fire.
As soon as the Seventh Fire was lit, the time came for the young to respectfully approach the gichi-ayaa'ag and ask them to guide them into finding back bimaadiziwin (life) and mino-misko-manidoo miikana (the good red spirit road).
The people stopped praying to a cruel God that had never been theirs in the first place, and the big wooden houses sporting a cross on their pointed roofs were abandoned. The Water Drum of the Midewiwin Lodge sounded its voice again and old flames of a distant past were rekindled. The time had come for the Anishinaabeg to return to living a life that was truly spiritual!
NOTES:
*Manidoo-minising, Island of the Spirits; present-day Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron. The original name of the island is Manidoowaaling, "Cave of the Spirit." It was named for an underwater cave where a powerful manidoo (spirit) was said to live.
**Mashkiigwaatig, or swamp tree: called tamarack by Euro-Americans/Canadians.
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