Many things could be said about this subject, along with showing a basic respect for our elders, a side subject many folks give only lip service to. For beginners though, if we maintain a healthy respect for our traditions by learning what they are, thus how to pay our due respects, and this would include the observation of major ceremonial functions, both for ourselves and the families we represent, and our elders. It was those same elders who gave us the original instructions we should be observing anyway, or it should have been.
Many Neshnabe folks today though have been removed from that instruction for various reasons, but that doesn’t mean they still cannot learn what those traditions are. The same folks who should know, but don’t, for whatever reason or reasons they may cite, are the same ones who suffer the most hardship and seem to lay the blame for these things at the door of the rest of us, who are attempting to observe our traditions. We get blamed in many different ways, which I won’t go into right now.
If we are practicing an observance of our traditions and are attempting to maintain ourselves in a reasonably healthy manner, lifestyle and ceremonial life, we can conceivably expect to receive the blessings of health and help we request at our ceremonies. It stands to reason, when one is praying and observing what they should, they can reasonably expect their concept of a God to bless them accordingly. The flip side of that is when you don’t maintain a good spiritual attitude and ceremonial life, it seems we are subject to numerous maladies of this world, resulting in dysfunctional lifestyles for some.
There is a need to return to our own basic traditions and the practice, along with the respect for those traditions, and an observance of the ceremonies of our people. Then we shall observe some major changes among our people and they will begin to experience some positive blessings from observing those traditions.
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Whazzup?
A favorite question of the young people today, eh?
The same thing is always up with me, I tell them……
Ode zheshmownenan gete shna enagdewendemyan pene mine wa zhechkeyan emendokaswiyan ngoji pi epa shya yan. I am constantly considering my place in this universe with the Spirit/spirits of late. Like, I wonder a lot about my dad, who walked on back in September of 1983, and other relatives who have sincewalked on also. If I didn’t hold regular “ghost feasts” for those who have walked on, people I still care very deeply about, I would be remiss and feel I have failed them somehow. My dad and others of my deceased relatives taught me a lot about what I believe today and still practice of the “old ways” our people once prayed and worshipped or followed. If it were not for them I would not be here today. They are the backbone of all I believe theologically, sociologically, psychologically, economically, philosophically, and beyond. I am the sum total of all they ever taught me. I further believe no one can say they are anything without that which they were taught by their forebears, their relatives and parents. We need to honor those people periodically whom we represent in this world today. That is why we jibekwe once in awhile, usually every spring and fall for me.
Jibekwe means to hold a “ghost feast”.
So that is something that I have on my mind today, thus what is up for me!
Also, Spring Equinox is just around the corner……
I wonder how many Potawatomi folk offer prayers for a good planting season and good health/help when the seasons change like this. March 20 is the day we usually get up early in the morning and make our offerings of food, water, corn, berries, and some kind of meat with our nensema, and remember our past along with our furure as well. It is at that time we pray for the Earth and all the people, black, red, yellow, and white, the four leggeds, the creeping crawling nations, and the flying nations, as well as the fire, rock, water, and the green.
It is a very solemn moment for us and usually the week end preceding that date we will hold teachings regarding the sacredness of our ways and our ceremonial obligations to each other and the Earth’s denizens. These are ways to remind ourselves we were crafted in a sacred manner and placed on this altar, Earth, for a purpose, and we need to remember what those instructions are and what is expected of us.
Too many people merely profess a belief in things traditional to us and not enough are really practicing what they preach to others. The modern day way of life that casinos, the government grant life, BIA, pursuing the white man’s education system, the corporate way of life, and so much else the dominant society throws at us as a people, tend to get in the way of many of our people. We see our elders being pulled away by the casinos and other things like alcohol, and our young being pulled away by drugs and the modern way of life young white people follow, including their music. No longer are the sacred chants and oratory being done as in the days of yore.
Let’s face it folks! It is not being done! Pow wow songs are not the same as the sacred songs once sung in the Mide, the Wabeno Lodge, the Zhawnoge, the sweat lodge, and other ceremonials our people once practiced. Powwow songs are beautiful but they are not the same as our sacred ceremonial songs.
So that is part of what is up for me!
I’ll share more later……
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