Marking the end of summer is Mnomneké-Gizes (Ricing Moon), when Bodéwadmi and other Nishnabé travel to their annual wild rice camps for harvest. Harvest is a time to strengthen community bonds, connect with and bring balance to Segmekwé (Mother Earth). A sacred and essential food, mnomen was and is still eaten throughout the year. Highly nutritious, it was traditionally the …
One of the most prominent and competitive winter games among Bodéwadmi is the Moccasin Game. Forming two teams, each are comprised of a finder/hider, scorekeeper, drummers and singers. Using theatrics, each team is tasked with hiding a small wooden ball under one of four moccasins in an attempt to disguise its location and confuse opponents. With the ball concealed, drummers …
The forerunner of lacrosse, stickball is considered one the oldest American Indian sports, played in various forms by woodland tribes for centuries. The sport has three distinct regional styles [Northeast; Southeast; Great Lakes], with equipment, gameplay and fundamentals varying for each. Known to the Potawatomi as pegnegewen [stickball], games are played for recreation, communal prestige, spiritual reverence and healing. Exclusively …
Similar to pegnegewen (stick ball), péski’a or double-ball is a centuries-old Bodéwadmi sport customarily played solely by women. Played for recreation, communal prestige, spiritual reverence and healing, bagjegejek (players) are equipped with their own bagwzhanatek (ball stick) and divided into two even teams based on their moiety, shkesh (first-born) and kishko (second-born). Péski’a is played on a large, open field …
The pattern of annual migration across an area’s ecological zones to secure the variety of food and household goods that fulfill social-economic and cultural needs. The Seasonal Rounds of the Potawatomi refers to the pattern of annual migration across the local landscape’s ecological zones to harvest plants and animals that feed, heal, and are useful to the Potawatomi people (Steen-Adams, …
Tobacco is the most revered and powerful of all the medicine plants and considered a gift from Mamogosnan (Creator). It is used for protection and its smoke carries thoughts and prayers to the Creator.
In mnokme (spring), our ancestors drank spicebush tea to improve blood circulation, relieve upset stomach and as a diaphoretic for breaking fevers and treating colds. Similar benefits could be achieved by chewing on the twigs. Spicebush is a deciduous shrub native to eastern North America, ranging from Maine and New York to Ontario in the north, and to Kansas, Texas, …
Traditionally we are known as the Neshnabek [Man Sent Down From Above], a confederated nation comprised of the Ojibwe, Odawa and Bodéwadmi [Potawatomi]. Our confederacy is referred to as the Three Fires Council, recognizing that each tribe functions as brethren to serve the alliance as a whole. The Ojibwe, our eldest kinsmen, were first in igniting the flames of the …
Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) describes the complex set of knowledge, practices and beliefs about the relationship that indigenous peoples have with the living and nonliving world around them (Berkes, 2003). It exists in societies that have a direct dependence on local resources. It is the intergenerational knowledge that develops from a long-term intimacy and attentiveness when people are materially and …
Games of Skill Neta Chikaswen [Games of Skill] are those in which the outcomes are determined by a player’s mental and physical abilities, rather than by chance. Traditional sports of this nature were and still are used by Potawatomi and other Native nations to build communal ties through leisure, celebrate and honor sacred and ceremonial events, cure the sick and …