Bgéji éyajmoyan ngom

We are back from the Potawatomi Gathering 2007 which took place at Crandon, WI this year, and the 5th Annual Language Conference that was held at Carter, WI, just prior to to the Gathering of Potawatomi folk. Both events were well attended and much was learned by all who took part in the Language Conference, as well as many Potawatomi folk gaining a better perspective of themselves, as a nation and as individuals, within their respective reservation areas and tribes.

I would have liked to have heard more from the Language Teachers, especially from Billy Daniels, Jim Thunder, Peter Pemma, Mary Wensaut, Mary Daniels, Lillian Kelty, Marian Perrot, Donald Perrot, Lillian Rice, Cecelia Potts, Stewart King, and other fluent elders, instead of the speakers they did schedule.

Some of the beginning speakers are good, but come on now, they are not completely fluent, and why can’t they pay their dues first, as the original fluent speakers have done?
The Language Conference was good, but for me: I wanted to hear from other fluent speakers like me, and be able to talk shop with them, instead of always catering to the Language Learners, who are still doing just that, still learning!

I think the Language Leraners should still be listening to us, the fluent speakers, and what were the Ojibwa speakers doing there from Bay Mills College? Are they suddenly Potawatomi, or were they speaking Potawatomi? I think not!

Yeah, the Learners should leave the speaking to the fluent speakers and listen, learn more before they venture out to speak, because much of what they teach and try to share is wrong, not quite correct, thus making it wrong……

They may mean well, but meaning well and getting it right are two different things. Listen and learn well, so they can pronounce it right, before trying to teach others is what I say!

If anyone differs with that, tough luck!
I want my language taught right, by fluent speakers……
just me—-Don.

Ahau, Zagjewékwé ndezhnekas, wife of Neaseno…

Node mingaswenen…..These Neshnabék people who lived long ago understood something about the nature of giving and receiving gifts that has been forgotten in this modern world of commerce and silver dollar economics. 

Consider a gift given to you.  Something extravagant, perhaps a pricy birthday gift.  It would make you feel great, special, bring a great big smile to your face…until that person’s birthday came around.  Do you give an equally extravagant gift?  Can you afford to?  Would it make you feel bad if you couldn’t?

The idea that a gift is freely given is somewhat of a myth.  Gifts are given to strengthen bonds of friendship, family, and community.  If these gifts are given only one way, how is that bond strengthened?  No, gifts were meant to be EXCHANGED, gifts were meant to be RECIPROCATED.

The Spirit of Life has given us many gifts.  Life, this world in which we enjoy our Life, and all of the Spiritual Gifts that enhance our Life and pave the way back home to our Real Life.  So it is that our Creator is creating a relationship with us.  The Spirit has given us our Free Will and does not command our loyalty; instead Creator gives us the choice of having a relationship with him/her.  It is through these Gifts that The Spirit offers us the opportunity of a relationship.  To continue that relationship, it behooves us to RECIPROCATE THE GIFT!!

Among the Neshnabék, it is still customary to give a gift to someone when they enter your home for the first time.  I have seen my husband do this many times, and I myself received a gift from my husband’s mother upon entering her home.  I had brought a gift for her, and we exchanged gifts, but I didn’t know at the time that I was participating in a ceremony of welcome and acceptance.  What is often forgotten is that a welcome gift received is supposed to be reciprocated, it is supposed to be exchanged.  Within a reasonable amount of time you are supposed to give a gift in exchange for the one you were given.  To not do so is an insult to the giver, a rejection of their hospitality and offer of friendship.  For the giver to request a gift in exchange is an insult as well.  Many a misunderstanding has occurred because the gift EXCHANGE was overlooked, and today, such gift giving is completely overlooked by some people.

This is the nature of Neshnabék giving:  A man approached another man at a powwow.  After exchanging pleasantries, the first man told the second man how much he admired his belt.  The second man smiled, thanked the man, and took off the belt right there on the spot and handed it to the man.  The first man was not taken aback, he simply smiled, thanked the man, and took the expensive cowboy hat off his head and handed it to the second man, who smiled and thanked the first man.  THAT is giving.

Consider this…You cannot out-give Mamogosnan.  It is said among the ones who know,  What you give in the name of the Pipe will come back to you four times.

So how does one give to the Spirit?  By giving to the people, especially to those through whom the gifts flow.

Spiritual Gifts are Gifts from the Spirit.  A Name, A Language, A Teaching, A Song, A Doctoring, A Sweat, A Prayer, all are gifts of the Spirit.  When the Spirit gives these to a person, he/she waits to see if the gift is accepted and reciprocated.  He/she waits to be told Thank You. 

For years there have been rumors among the young ones that the “Medicine People” of the Nations do not “Charge” for doctoring.  And this has been taken to mean that doctoring and other spiritual ceremonies are free.  This has been a tragic misconception that has prevented many a person from receiving the full realization of the Gifts of the Spirit.  When the Spirit gives a gift, especially the gift of Mno Bmadzewen – Life and Good Health, he/she waits to see if his/her Gift is accepted, respected, and appreciated.  If the gift is not exchanged, the full blessing of the original gift may not come to pass.  The Spirit waits for the exchange, and then returns the exchange by four times.

THE MEDICINE PEOPLE DIDN’T CHARGE BECAUSE CULTURALLY IT WAS KNOWN, ACCEPTED, AND EXPECTED THAT A GIFT WOULD BE RECIPROCATED.  THEY DIDN’T HAVE TO ASK.  IT WAS GIVEN WITHOUT QUESTION.

If a medicine person had to ask for the gift that was supposed to be given, it was considered an insult all the way around.  And that’s why even today, many Spiritual Leaders will not ask for gifts, but will simply let it go rather than insult themselves, the person requesting the ceremony, and the Spirit Him/Herself.  Others will disguise the request for a gift as a “Charge”, perhaps charging for a Language Lesson, a Book or Manual, or a Speaking Engagement, in order to protect the people from insulting themselves and the Spirit by giving nothing.

Historically, it was the misinterpretation of Neshnabék culture by certain missionaries that resulted in this misconception.  Catholic Jesuits in particular, were under a vow of Poverty, and were in direct competition with the Spiritual Leadership for the souls of the Neshnabék.  They knew that in order to win the hearts, minds, and souls of the people, they had to discredit the Spiritual Leadership in any way possible.  One way they did this was to attack the custom of giving a feast and presenting the Spiritual Leader with gifts in exchange for spiritual gifts given.  They asserted that they prayed and asked for nothing in return except their attendance in church, as their vow of poverty prevented them from accepting such extravagance.  They asserted that these “medicine men” had no business accepting gifts or any other remuneration for the work that they do.  (That which they preached was in contrast to the custom of Papal Indulgences, the custom of purchasing, yes, with MONEY, the passage of a relative from Purgatory into Heaven.) 

Interesting reading, those Jesuit Relations, the record of the conversion of many Neshnabek nations.  They speak of being attacked and burned as witches for spreading smallpox, shortly after the Catholics had terrorized Europe with witch burnings of Jews and midwives.  What goes around comes around, eh?  Yet another example of the reciprocity of the relationship between Spirit and Man, what we do in the name of our “God” will come back to us, no matter what we call him/her or how we worship him/her.

Why a physical gift?  Why not just say “Migwech” and be done?  Consider…

“If one gives things and returns them, it is because one is giving and returning “respects” – we still say “courtesies.”  Yet is also because by giving one is giving oneself, and if one gives oneself, it is because one “owes” oneself – one’s person and one’s goods – to others.”  Marcel Mauss (translated by WD Halls), The Gift:  The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies, 1950.

In other words, the things that we give are imbued with a spirit, both of HE/SHE that made it initially, and he/she the human who refashioned it into a gift.  Thus when we give a gift, we are giving a piece of ourselves, and that little piece of ourselves follows that gift wherever it goes.  And that is why the Neshnabék rarely refused a gift, for to refuse a piece of someone else is a serious insult. 

What is an appropriate gift?  Séma?  The old time séma, yes.  The séma that took a YEAR to collect the appropriate ingredients and combine them in the traditional way, with the songs and prayers.  The séma that represented a YEAR’s worth of work.  Back then, Séma meant a lot more than a $3 bag of tobacco from the local smoke shop.

These days, séma is available for purchase, and there’s nothing wrong with purchasing a bag of tobacco to give to an elder in exchange for a Spiritual Gift, such as a Name, a Language Lesson, a Spiritual Teaching, Doctoring, Vision Questing, or any other Ceremony.  However, the spirit of that tobacco needs to be augmented to reflect the changing world in which we live.

A long time ago, a person could exchange séma for other resources.  Not so these days.  My husband has never been able to purchase groceries or a gallon of gas with a tobacco tie. Gifts should be meaningful and useful, for long ago, everything was useful, even the most splendidly decorated blanket was still a blanket and used as a blanket.  Food, medicines, blankets, cooking and hunting items, clothing, even raw materials like hides, gourds, flint, or shketagen were used as gifts. 

For those among you who think that to give money to an Elder for a Spiritual Gift is an insult, you couldn’t be further from the truth.  In this modern economic system, money is a substitute for the traditional gifts that would have been given long ago.  It is appropriate to give money as an augmentation to the traditional gifts that you give an Elder, because that money represents resources:  food, fuel, clothing; the same things that would have been given long ago. 

Those old ones who knew, who wanted the Nation to be strong, knew that a healthy nation took care of its Elders and Spiritual Leadership.  They knew the Source of the Power of these Leaders was not human, but divine.  The Spirit works through his/her servants, he/she uses them, as Grandpa Fools Crow so eloquently stated, as “A Hollow Bone.”  By saying thank you through the giving of a feast and gifts, the gift was given back so it could be reciprocated again.  In this way, the Gifts of the Spirit were continually flowing to the people, and the people were continually reciprocating to the Spirit.  There was a cycle, a circle, a RELATIONSHIP. 

It was that RELATIONSHIP that kept the people strong.  It is that same RELATIONSHIP that could exist today among the people, if they would only recognize the source of their Spiritual Gifts, including Life, Language, and Culture, and reciprocate appropriately.

Ahau, iw énajmoyan.  Zagjewékwé ndezhnekas.

(This has been written by Zagjewékwé, Neaseno’s wife.)

Much has been written about native beliefs and the way we native people worship. It has kept many an anthropologist, sociologist, social-psychologist, and many of the other Ologists busy for some time studying and probing our native psyches and collective awarenesses, trying to find out who we are, what we were, and whether or not they could ever accept us, and incorporate us into their melting pot of America. Many other cultural groups have been studied with the same scrutiny and expediency and have been accepted, to varying degrees; the Irish, Italians, Polish, Jews, Scottish, Germans, Russians, and the Blacks have been grudgingly accepted into various parts of Corporate America only through their sheer tenacity and confrontive personalities, but are still viewed as unacceptable in White social circles. For example, salt and pepper relationships, as they are often called, are still frowned upon, and the black who uses his/her political or economic clout to gain access into White mainstream organizations or social clubs, is only grudgingly accepted. The Native American has not tried to climb the social ladders or achieve any social prominence, even if they attain any degree of status in the entertainment industry, which has grudgingly admitted them in as actors and actresses. At one time, they were only included as extras, stuntmen, and technical advisors, and even then, some White expert had the final say over what they might advance. In short, most Native Americans do not seem to be too concerned about being accepted into White America, and generally have no interest in joining….

The subject of our religious beliefs have been a matter of study for some time now and folks who have made the efforts to explore the tenets of our religious ideals and ways, are still in doubt as to what we are, who we truly are, and who we worship. Linguists have added to the studies and even though many have learned various languages among us, they too, are still in limbo, as to what our languages encompass and who we address. From the early Jesuits and other religious leaders who sought to understand us through our languages, much data has been accumulated and translated, in an attempt to incorporate us into their religious scheme of things, to evangelize, and convert us. All of these efforts have not met with much success, as we still have scores of Native People who insist upon worshipping in their own way, and following their own teachings, and since the 1950’s, there has been a resurgence of Native People finding their own religious roots   

I want to share some things with you this afternoon about my language. We have no word for culture, nor do we have a word for tradition, or traditional, or for that matter, Indian. In fact, many of the words we take for granted, which the linguists and others have told us mean, don’t really mean that at all. If we took the time to examine many of the definitions of various words from the Potawatomi tongue and saw what they mean in the literal context, we would be surprised. Our language is sacred, it is what we were given to bless God and man, as well as all of creation. It is what our Creator gave us to speak with Him/Her. Even the words we utter, which supposedly refer to our concept of God, do not refer to a Him, but could mean Her.

The linguists, bless their souls, mean well, but have taken over just like the early religious leaders of their time did, the Jesuits and others who came to convert us, and now mean to tell us what our words and language mean. These people, with all their military might,  couldn’t conquer us, could not break us, nor could they defeat that Neshnabé spirit of us, that kept searching for its own, and eventually found its way through the various ceremonies our elders and spiritual people kept alive for us. We had prophecies told us in that magical, mystical language of ours, that was meant for this time and day, which foretold of the rise of the Native People once again. Though many of them searched our ways and language, they neglected to ascribe truth, wisdom, understanding and prudence to what they discovered about our language. Our language contained it all, if only they had been receptive to what they saw and sometimes heard, through the various elders who faithfully told them what they could.  

We don’t need linguists, priests, rabbis, ministers, senators, congressmen, social workers, judges, lawyers, their teachers, or anyone else to tell us what our language contains for us. We need to return to our own ways and we need to recognize the wisdom of our elders, stop giving it lip service, but really respect them for who they are, what they are, and what they know, about our language and all it has to say to us today.

Iw énajmoyan ngom……kyét nam épich mno wéndem édazgenjénéyan ode neshnabé zhechkéwen mine ode neshnabé méndokaswenen mine i neshnabé zheshmowen.

I love a people who have always made me welcome to the best they had.

I love a people who are honest without laws, who have no jails and no poorhouses.

I love a people who keep the commandments without ever having read them or heard them preached from the pulpit.

I love a people who never swear, who never take the name of God in vain.

I love a people who love their neighbors as they love themselves.

I love a people who worship god without a bible, for I believe that God loves them also.

I love a people whose religion is all the same, and who are free from religious animosities.

I love a people who have never raised a hand against me, or stolen my property, where there was no law to punish for either.

I love a people who have never fought a battle with white men, except on their own ground.

I love and don’t fear mankind where God has made and left them, for there they are children.

I love a people who live and keep what is their own without locks and keys.

I love a people who do the best they can.

And oh, how I love a people who don’t live for the love of money!

Geroge Catlin  (1796-1872)

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.   

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……  

folks:

i remember when i was in the service and the many trips we made to foreign countries where we had to speak another language in order to communicate with our peers over there, if we wanted something to eat, or drink, or just seeking directions. i found it interesting to do this and i found the people engaging. i never thought it was a bother to learn some expressions to make myself understood and when i made subtle mistakes speaking a new language, no one made fun of me, but patiently corrected me and taught me to say it the right way. i never felt threatened in any way by anyone i met.

it is my beleif many american politicians and people who favor the”english only policy” the government wants to adopt feel threatened in some way by having all these foreigners among us, and having to learn some new words and customs to interact and communicate effectively scares them a little. they are no longer in control. i have traveled in some places where the american was considered “ugly” and “controlling”. i have also felt at times, that i didn’t want to be identified with americans, and did not want people referring to me as an american indian. i used to tell them i was neshnabe, not american, and that iwas here in america before america ever was.

the whole concept of america and democracy is a borrowed policy and the american writers of the constitution could rightly say they borrowed their whole idea of democray and freedom from the native people they met, especially the haudenoshaunee people. benjamin franklin and many others were very much impressed with the league of the iroquois and they had many meetings with these folks, as well as with other native nations, whom they emulated, in terms of framing their new democratic government.

why did they keep slavery?

why did they take so long to give their women the right to vote?

why did they not allow free trade and commerce to the common people too, these framers of the constitution?

and now they want to foist an “english only” policy on the rest of the country?

i love my language. it is the tongue given to me by the creator and he/she expected me to use it. why else did he/she give it to me? i do not want to lose my language. i don’t know about others among our rank and file, but if we don’t do something to learn our language, we are not going to have it much longer. i am going to be 68 years young this year and it will not be much longer before i go the way of all flesh. what will happen to our language if my children and the folks i so courageously teach today, if they don’t learn the language of their forefathers, after i pass from this scene? it does make one wonder, eh?

hang in there and learn all you can while there are still people alive who can teach you……..

neaseno ndesh ne kas, iw enaj moyan ngom…….. 

Mr. Perrot’s new manual, Bodéwadmi Wawyéyanon Se Kéndaswen, is now available in the online store, http://www.neaseno.org/store.htm    You can purchase online using a credit card, or you can email us at wasjewen@neaseno.org to make arrangements to pay by check/money order. 

The manual is a collection of charts, teaching circles, and other grammatical information.  Students of the Potawatomi language will really appreciate this valuable review manual. 

*Updated 3/20/08 - All Manuals are now available through Amazon.com!  Just type in Donald Perrot into the search bar…

English only?

Several states are trying to make English the official language, requiring that all business be conducted in English.

What a shame. 

Do you realize that if English were the only language, we wouldn’t have the states of Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin, Mississippi, Ohio, Alaska, or Hawaii?  We would no longer have the cities of Seattle, Miami, Chicago, or Milwaukee!  Or Sacramento, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Antonio, or Las Vegas!  We would no longer have the Mississippi River, the Missouri River, Lake Michigan, or Lake Huron!   George Washington would have never crossed the Potomac River!

There would be no Mardi Gras!!!!  There would be no New Orleans, no Baton Rouge! 

Are you saying we can no longer go to a place of business and order pizza, tacos, burritos, spaghetti, salsa, moo goo gai pan, chou mein, lo mein, kim-chee, sushi, kebabs, or a salami and provolone sandwich? 

We couldn’t go to the store and buy queso dip, tortillas, mozzarella cheese, pita bread, or éclairs!   We couldn’t go to a zoo and see a flamingo or a moose!

We would also be without Psi Beta Kappa, Delta Chi, Sigma Chi, Delta Delta Delta, Lambda Alpha, and every other Greek fraternity/sorority organization!!

Do you realize that many religious observances are conducted in languages that are considered sacred and part of the religious ceremony?  How can you conduct a Jewish Bar-mitzvah, a Latin Mass, or a Muslim Prayer Service without their languages?  And what about Native Americans who use their language in their sacred ceremonies?

If English became the only language, we could no longer have a rendezvous, nor could we RSVP for one!  (For those who don’t know, it stands for Respondez S’il Vous Plait!)

I LIVE IN TECUMSEH, OKLAHOMA.   To say that would be illegal, seeing as neither Tecumseh or Oklahoma are English words!!!

To those of you who believe in English Only for Americans, try going for ONE DAY without using a word that comes from another language!!!!

Without using Hola, Ciao, Aloha, or Adios. 

• Without using Habeas Corpus, No Solo Contendre, or the abbreviations i.e. or e.g. 
• Without going to Taco Bell, Taco Grandé, Taco Bueno, Taco Mayo, or Taco John’s. 
• Without having a rendezvous, or sending in an RSVP. 
• Without calling a Physician, Psychologist, Psychiatrist, Podiatrist, Dentist, Neurologist, Dermatologist, Chiropractor, or going to a SPA (named after a town in Belgium!!)

America is an amalgamation of languages and cultures from all around the world.  It is this diversity that makes us strong, adaptable, and NOT BORING!!  It is FEAR that is driving this English only movement!  Fear of people and words that are not understood!  I’d say it was Xenophobia, but that’s another illegal word!! 

Here’s a thought.  Instead of making English the only official language, how’s about requiring that EVERY AMERICAN learn at least THREE languages!

STOP THE MADNESS!!  Accept the non-Englishness of American English!  Be proud of your heritage, and your neighbor’s heritage, and your parents and your grandparents and your great-grandparents and anyone else you know who is American but talks differently than you!!!  Don’t be afraid of things you don’t understand!

Listen to Spanish language radio!  Watch international TV stations!  Read international newspapers and websites!  Learn an endangered language!  Get educated!  Get informed!  Education is the only way to combat ignorance!!

If you speak another language, DON’T STOP!!!!!  Keep speaking it, even to yourself if you have to!!

PASS IT ON!!

Donald and Dolores Perrot

http://www.neaseno.org

kyet nam she gi kche ksenya dbekok shote embwachewyan.

cho wi she school wgi towat nekmek ngoji pi shote ngom….

ksenyamget ektowat gode naganijek……

well folks, it is cold and very chilly up here in the north country today…

I had no idea it was going to be this cold, otherwise I would have planned this trip another time.  It was -24 below zero last night  with wind chill factors in excess of -45 below zero at times with that cold north wind blowing.  I came up here to do some interviews with some of our esteemed elders only to find many of them ill with all this cold weather about. 

My mother is feeling better today but feels she wants to wait another day before she tries to do any lengthy talking with anyone.  So it is a matter of waiting out this cold weather to see if we can film and record some of our elders on this trip.   I think we may be able to do so tomorrow and then again on wednesday and thursday, so all is not lost.

That is a brief report of this trip into chilly Wisconsin during the month of February.

ahau, ik she ye i eshe webek shote egi bya yan wa je kigdoyan anet gode kekyajek.

bama she gwi bsendageyek wa zhechkeyak epabmadziyak shote ngoji pi.

ngi nedwendamen wa je zhechkeyak ode kedwenen bwamshe epamsewat gi kekyajek.

ahau, bama mine gwi kigdomen embyegeyan shote……..