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As I toured the new ceremonial Big Drum hall, Gimanidoowichigemin Gwaaba'iganing, last week in Sawyer, I felt the importance of the community efforts to see that this place was built, bringing Nimishomis (our grandfather, as the drum is called) home. Listening to speakers who delivered their comments in Ojibwe was an uncommon opportunity to hear the flow of the language as it must have been in community gatherings before the boarding school era, which deliberately attempted to destroy the...
There are no term limits for Reservation Business Committee members, once elected by the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa band members. That does not guarantee a lifelong career for those who hold office when band members decide to make a change, as happened with two of the three seats in the June 11 election. Newly elected RBC chairman Bruce Savage and returning District I Cloquet representative Wally Dupuis were officially sworn into office Friday, July 5, while Earl Otis, the new...
The Animikii Mazina'iganan: Thunderbird Press team joins the community of small regional presses in our area with its first publication, "Fur Trade Nation: An Ojibwe's Graphic History." The new press will celebrate with a release party Tuesday. Using pen and ink drawings, Carl Gawboy (a Bois Forte Band member) explores the history of the fur trade and its impact on Minnesota in a graphic novel. Gawboy is a retired history teacher and an excellent artist whose work has long presented images of...
Last weekend, as they've done for more generations than there are records, Ojibwe descendents gathered for aadizookeng - wintertime storytelling which can be told only at night when there is snow on the ground. The fifth annual Ojibwe Language Symposium at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College attracted close to 200 participants from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Dakota, and Canada Feb. 2-4. Arne and Ivy Vainio shared my table during the feast. They said conferences like this one are...