Manidoons, Manidoosh: Bugs in Ojibwe Culture

WENDY MAKOONS GENIUSZ University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire

FIREFLY SONG

Verse 1: Waawaatesi Waawaatesiins Waabishkode Manidoons

Verse 2: Niimi’aadaa Ishkode Gigikinoo’amaadimin

Verse 3: Waawaatesi Little rey Little itting white-re spirit

Verse 4: Come and dance me Come and teach me Lead me to the happy dreams

INTRODUCTION

I was six years old when my Anishinaabe namesake, Keewaydinoquay, taught me this song.1 The version presented here is my retranscription of

1. Keewaydinoquay Peschel, who encouraged those close to her to call her “Kee,” gave me my Ojibwe name when I was six years old. For more information on Kee see Geniusz 2005.

85 86 WENDY MAKOONS GENIUSZ the handwritten version (Geniusz manuscript) my mother, Mary Geniusz, copied, with permission, from Kee’s handwritten notebook. On her written version, Kee titles this song “Firey Song.” Kee said this was an old song she had learned as a child. She translated the English verses, added them to the song, and always sang them with the Ojibwe verses. Following Biskaabiiyang Research Methodologies, developed by the students and elders working with the Masters of Indigenous Knowledge/ Philosophy Program at Seven Generations Education Institute, I used this song to guide my research and the organization of this paper.2 According to these methodologies, the Anishinaabe researcher must start by examin- ing his or her own teachings and beliefs on a topic, using the ones that come from the Gete-Anishinaabeg ‘old time Indians’ to guide that research and discarding the negative ideas that come from the repressive system of colonization so that the researcher will be in a position to conduct research that is accurate and meaningful to him or herself and to other Anishinaa- beg.3 Since this song was the rst of our old teachings that I ever learned about the manidoonsag ‘bugs’ I began with it.4 Since the ultimate goal of Biskaabiiyang Research Methodology is to conduct research that will be meaningful to all Anishinaabeg, Ojibwe bug names are used in this paper in place of English ones, regardless of which is used in the origi- nal source, and these names are written in the Fiero orthography.5 This is done to encourage their use, as these names are being lost from our communities.

2. Seven Generations Education Institute is located between Couchiching First Nation Reserve and Fort Frances, Ontario on Agency 1 Land. 3. For more information on Biskaabiiyang Research methodologies see: www.7 generations.org; Geniusz 2009, or Geniusz 2012. 4. As further explained in Geniusz 2009, the use of Ojibwe words is an integral part of Biskaabiiyang Research, especially when discussing beings or topics important to Anishinaabe culture. For example, anishinaabe-izhitwaawin is used in place of the English “Anishinaabe culture.” In this paper, manidoonsag and its variants (described in a later section) is used in place of the English “bugs.” 5. Names from the original sources are noted. In some cases, slight dialectical changes have been made for the sake of consistency, such as Johnston’s “Manitoosh,” being changed to “Manidoosh,” but the original is noted. MANIDOONS, MANIDOOSH 87

WAAWAATESI

The rst line of both the Ojibwe and English verses of this song is simply “Waawaatesi” ‘rey’, which Kee writes: “Wa wa Taysee.” When talking about bugs in Anishinaabe culture, it seems obvious to begin by talking about how Anishinaabeg rst learn about these beings in childhood. There are bugs that anishinaabe-izhitwaawin ‘Anishinaabe culture’ connects to children, and Waawaatesi is one of them.6 I remember Kee encouraging children to sing this song. During our interview, Dora Dorothy Whipple happily talked about how, as a child growing up on the Leech Lake Res- ervation, she, her cousins, and her siblings used to catch and play with waawaatesiwag ‘reies’.7 Henry Schoolcraft (1851–1857:364) recorded a song in Ojibwe about Waawaatesi, and a note below his transcription of this song reads, “By the Indian Children.” Schoolcraft (1856:311) presents a transcription of another song about Waawaatesi, this one completely in English, and he titles this song, “Evening Chant of the Indian Children to the Watasee, the Fire-y.” Anishinaabe-izhitwaawin also connects memengwaag ‘butteries’ to children. Some of our stories say that butteries were created for children. Basil Johnston (1981:12–16) presents a story, told to him by Wahwahsk- gone, which tells us that butteries have been connected to children since the rst human babies lived on this earth. Anton Treuer (2010:90–93) presents a bilingual version of this story, told to him in Ojibwe by Anna Gibbs. In this story, the animals of the world care for the rst human babies, the twins of Spirit Woman.8 The animals ask Nenabozho for help when they

6. Ojibwe words used in this paper are only capitalized when they refer to specic humans or beings. Anishinaabe is only capitalized when referring to those people who call themselves the Anishinaabe, often referred to as Ojibwe or Chippewa in English. When referring to anishinaabe-izhitwaawin ‘Anishinaabe culture’ no capitalization is made. When referring to other beings, capitalization is only used when that name rep- resents a specic being, such as a character in a story, or when referring to the spiritual aspect of that insect, such as Waawaatesi, who represents the spirit of all reies. 7. From here on Dora Dorothy Whipple is referred to by the name by which she is most well-known: Dorothy Whipple. She asked to ofcially be identied on the works cited page as “Dora Dorothy Whipple.” 8. This is Johnston’s designation; Treuer records Gibbs calling this woman “manidookwe,” a spirit woman, but does not suggest that this is her name. 88 WENDY MAKOONS GENIUSZ see that the babies do not run or walk. Gichi-manidoo tells Nenabozho to go to a certain place to nd sparkling stones. Nenabozho nds the stones, which are blue, red, green, and yellow. When he throws them in the air, they turn into memengwaansag ‘little butteries’.9 The twins are delighted with the memengwaansag and try to catch them. Johnston writes, “the but- teries always uttered just beyond the grasp of the small outstretched hands.” The twins begin to crawl, walk, and run so they can chase after the memengwaansag. Anne Dunn (1995:175–177) also connects memengwaag to children.10 In Dunn’s story, Gichi-manidoo pities all life on earth as it will someday grow old.11 Gichi-manidoo creates memengwaag and gives them to children saying, “this is for you.” The narrator concludes, “they are the delight of children . . . and still the old ones enjoy them, too.” Frances Densmore (1929:51) says the Anishinaabeg she worked with told her that memengwaa ‘buttery’ is “the spirit of childish play,” and that because of this, they are often embroidered or beaded on babies’ umbili- cal cord bags. Densmore (1929:69) later describes a children’s game she calls “hide and seek, or the buttery game.” There are four players in this game, and they draw sticks to determine who will hide and who will seek. The seeker sings this song while looking for the other players: “me-e-mem- gwe, me-e-mem-gwe [buttery] show me where to go.”12 Densmore says the seeker, “held his nose between thumb and ngers as he sang this, giving it a peculiar nasal sound, and he prolonged the rst syllable, the rhythm of the call being 1–2–3–4, with the ‘3–4’ corresponding to the two last syllables.” According to another teaching presented by Densmore (1929:81), ikwa ‘louse’ can sometimes hold meaning for children.13 She says that “a child

9. Johnston’s version says that Nanabush was bored and decided to throw the stones for entertainment. Treuer’s version says that Gichi-manidoo instructed Nenabozho to throw the stones into the air. The reference to memengwaansag comes from Treuer. Johnston identies them as “butteries.” 10. It is unclear whether this story is of Dunn’s own creation or if it is one she heard as a child. The Preface (Dunn 1995:10–12) simply says that she grew up hearing many stories, and that some in this collection are traditional stories, while others are “new tales.” All the stories, however, appear to be deeply rooted in Anishinaabe teachings. 11. Dunn uses “Creator.” As with the bug names used in this paper, the names of spirits in these stories are also identied by their Ojibwe name whenever possible. 12. In her orthography buttery is: PHHPƟPJZH. MANIDOONS, MANIDOOSH 89 who was too young to have had a dream” was instructed to put a birch-bark dish, lled with some tobacco and an ikwa into the water and watch it as it oated away. She continues, “if the waves upset it the people were sure the storm was almost over and that they could soon resume their journey.”

WAAWAATESIINS

The second line of Kee’s song is, “Waawaatesiins,” which corresponds to the English line “Little rey.” She writes this word, “wa wa taysens.” Waawaa- tesiins is the diminutive form of waawaatesi (Nichols and Nyholm 1995:117). Although of varying sizes, the manidoonsag ‘bugs’ are all extremely little when compared with humans, but their size does not make them any less important. They are other living beings, and anishinaabe-izhitwaawin tells us that we accord them the same respect we would grant to all beings. Waawaatesi is someone we can speak to just as we speak to other humans. Both the lines in Kee’s song and those which Schoolcraft (1851– 1857:364, 1856:311) recorded address Waawaatesi directly. In Kee’s song, the rey is addressed directly by name: “Waawaatesi, waawaate- siins.” Later in the song, the singer uses a reciprocal verb when address- ing Waawaatesi, saying that the singer and the bug will teach each other: “Gigikinoo’amaadimin.” According to Nichols’ (1991:124) retranscription, the rst line of Schoolcraft’s Ojibwe song (1851–1857:364) addresses the Waawaatesi, and immediately asks the bug to “ash light for me”: “Waawaa- tesi waawaatese’amawishin.” Later in this song, the singer asks Waawaatesi to come to him/her: “Bi-izhaan, Bi-izhaan.” Our stories describe a time when at least some of the manidoonsag were not the tiny beings they are today. Ray and Stevens (1971:136–137) and Berens and Hallowell (2009:171–172) record similar stories about a time when the zagimeg ‘mosquitoes’ were the size of a human being. Ray and Stevens write about a time when Guy-An-Way sets out to kill can- nibals inhabiting the earth,14 including one named Zagime.15 Zagime “had supernatural power so that he could change from the form of an ordinary

13. Densmore has “headlouse.” 14. Ray and Stevens (1971:136–137) divide this story in to separate parts: “The Arrival of Guy-An-Way” and “Guy-An-Way and the Mosquitoes.” 15. Ray and Stevens have “Sagimays.” 90 WENDY MAKOONS GENIUSZ man into a great insect when attacking defenseless Indians.” After killing the cannibal’s family, Guy-An-Way confronts Zagime himself. The narrator describes the cannibal’s metamorphosis during this confrontation: “[Zagime] prepared himself for killing. From his back grew a huge pair of wings making him appear like a human insect.” As Zagime ies toward him, Guy-An-Way kills him with a spear. When Guy-An-Way leaves the scene of the ght, the lice from the cannibal’s hair become the zagimeg. William Berens told the story Hallowell recorded, and in this story the zagimeg regularly set snares for humans, whom they call “moose.” The narrator calls the zagimeg “man-eaters” and the “Mosquito people.” One human tricks a zagime into taking him home, and then manages to drive a chisel into the man-eater’s head. The zagime is still alive with this chisel in his head, and his family asks the “wisest man in camp who was the bull dog y, mizizaak ‘deer y’” how to remove the chisel. Mizizaak tells them to drive the chisel through his head, but this splits the man-eater’s head into two parts. While everyone else is dealing with the chisel, the man-eater’s son chases the human as he ees from camp. While pursuing him, the son gets very wet and almost freezes to death. The human tricks the son into lying beside a re, where he is roasted to death. The human cuts the body into pieces, throwing them around and saying, “You’ll be small now. You were too big before. If the big ones keep up, no human being will be able to live.”16 It is interesting that in Berens’s story, Mizizaak is large enough to be part of the camp lled with human-sized zagimeg. Perhaps there are more stories of the manidoonsag having once been larger than they are today. Despite their current small size, the manidoonsag are still quite capable of killing humans, especially if we do not treat them respectfully. Ray and Stevens (1971:73–74) present another story about the power of the today’s small zagimeg. In this story a man tries to take revenge on the zagimeg by holding them captive until the coldest day of winter, when he takes them outside to die in the snow.17 As they are dying he tells them he is doing

16. Norman Quill (1965:31–38) also tells two versions of this story. His versions describe the zagimeg calling humans “moose,” but they do not say how large these zagimeg were. His versions also do not connect the death of these human-eating zagimeg with the creation of the zagimeg we have today, but one of the versions he tells says that these spirit zagimeg, or “Sakime-yaatisoohkaana[g]” (originally given in the obvia- tive form), lose their power because a human attacks their hearts. 17. Ray and Stevens have “mosquitoes, or sagimay-wok.” MANIDOONS, MANIDOOSH 91 this so they will “know the hardships a man has to face besides your bites in the summer.” The next spring, the zagimeg come early and before the end of the summer, they have “drained all the blood from the man’s body, avenging the deaths of their brothers.” Their size also does not prevent the manidoonsag from taking pity on us and helping us. The zagimeg come to the aide of the Anishinaabeg in a story recorded by Barnouw (1977:158–159) and Laidlaw (1924–1925:54). Barnouw’s version was originally told by Charley Batiste, from Lac du Flambeau in Wisconsin.18 Laidlaw heard his version from Thos. Sandy, an Ojibwe from Ontario.19 In this story, the animikiig ‘thunder birds’ ask the zagimeg where they get all the blood they eat, and the zagimeg claim to get it from trees, although they actually get it from the Anishinaabeg. In both versions, the narrators conclude by saying that this is why trees are struck by lightning. In Barnouw’s version, this story is said to explain why the Norway pine, the specic tree the zagimeg identify, is struck by lightning. There is more to the story, however, as seen in the ending of Laidlaw’s ver- sion: “And if they had told the Thunderbirds where they did get the blood, all the Indians would have been killed. . . .” By lying to the animikiig, the zagimeg protect the Anishinaabeg from extinction. The bikojiisiwag ‘black ies’ protect the Anishinaabeg from the animikiig in a similar story (Ray and Stevens 1971:92).20 According to this story, the bikojiisiwag are looking for a place to spend the winter. They decide to stay with the animikiig, and the leader of the animikiig asks them many questions, including: “Where did you obtain the blood in your bod- ies?” One of the bikojiisiwag says that it comes from “the tall trees in the

18. Barnouw’s version was originally collected in Lac du Flambeau by Robert Rittzenthaler. 19. Laidlaw (1924:38) identies Sandy as “a young Rama Ojibwa, nineteen years old, a patient in the Gravenhurst Sanitarium, Ontario, where he died 29th August, 1922. Indian name, Waub-kagh (or cog.)—Grey porcupine.” Laidlaw adds that Sandy learned “most” of his stories from another Ojibwe man, James Sheebgo, also a patient at Gravenhurst Sanitarium, and from “Martin Falls on the Albany River, northern Ontario, about forty miles above the mouth of the Ogoki River, where there is a Hudson Bay post, and which is about 250 miles from Hudson Bay.” Sheebgo also goes by his grandfather’s name, “Chief Weenjack.” 20. The Moose manuscript has “bikojiis, -wag” ‘blacky’. Laidlaw gives “bok-o-geesih- wok.” 92 WENDY MAKOONS GENIUSZ forest.” The animikiig immediately begin attacking the tall trees with re. The narrator concludes, “Whenever my people see trees split by lightning bolts, they tell us that it is the thunderbirds looking for the blood of the Indians.” A manidoons ‘bug’ related to the zagimeg protects an Anishinaabe man in yet another story (Ray and Stevens 1971:72–73). The man, Mama- gee-sic, has poor hunting skills that have caused his family to go hungry. One day, Mama-gee-sic is gathering roots to build a new canoe to replace his old one, which “mysteriously disappeared,” when a swarm of zagimeg attack him.21 He tries to swat them away, but they overwhelm him. The narrators tell us he gives up saying, “I have had enough torture, mosquitoes! You can take my life. Feast on my body.” He takes off his clothes and the mosquitoes cover him. Just before he is about to die from blood loss, he hears someone say, “Let this unfortunate man alone. He has had trouble enough in the life of one man.” The zagimeg also hear these words, and they all y away. Then a large insect, identied as the Queen mosquito, hovers over him and heals all the mosquito-inicted wounds by touching him with her wing.22 He is able to nish digging his roots, and from then on he is a good hunter. The narrator tells us, “Our people say the Queen mosquito never harms the Indians. She was the creature who befriended the Cree and for this reason our hunters respect the Queen mosquito.”

WAABISHKODE MANIDOONS

The next line of Kee’s song is “Waabishkode Manidoons,” which she writes, “Wab ishkhoday manidooens.” This line corresponds to the English line

21. In the story, Ray and Stevens only identify the zagimeg by their English name, but in their glossary (1971:13–16) they record “Sagimay Mosquito.” 22. A footnote identies the “Queen mosquito” as a “shy” (1971:73). No Ojibwe name is given in their glossary (1971:13–16). Although it is difcult to identify insects by common English name alone, this manidoons is likely Chauliodes pectinicornis, whose common name is “shy” (University of Michigan). This manidoons would resemble a big mosquito as it looks like a dragony when ying. If the man is gathering spruce roots from the black spruce, Picea mariana, then he is probably near a watery environment, and that’s where Chauliodes pectinicornis lives. Fishies are “aquatic predators that live under rocks and logs in streams. They feed on minnows, tadpoles, insects, and other aquatic prey” (University of Michigan; University of Kentucky). MANIDOONS, MANIDOOSH 93

“Little itting white re spirit,” which is very close to the literal transla- tion of this line, especially if this is a compound, Waabishkode-Manidoons, comprised of Waabishkode ‘White-re’ and Manidoons ‘little spirit, fairy, or little bug’. This line, and its English translation, acknowledges one of the amazing things about how the manidoonsag are viewed in the Ojibwe language and in anishinaabe-izhitwaawin. The word manidoons can refer to an insect or to a little spirit, including a fairy. Kee’s translation of “little itting white-re spirit” sounds a lot like the English description of fairies. It is both a general word for all insects and the diminutive for manidoo ‘spirit, or some sort of spiritual being’. Nichols and Nyholm (1995:77) cite manidoons as a diminutive form under the entry manidoo, but also provide a separate entry for manidoons, glossed as ‘bug, insect’. Baraga (1878–80:219) cites the entry “manitns” as ‘little spirit, insect, worm’. There seems to be a general understanding with Ojibwe speakers, however, of which is being spoken when one talks about the manidoonsag in the language. Dorothy Whipple did not like the translation of manidoonsag as ‘little spirits’, adding that “spirits” are “only dead people.” She did say that manidoons could refer to something “like God” and that it could also refer to “one little bug,” but they were not the same thing. She made it clear that people understand by the context of the situation whether the word is used to describe a spirit or a bug. In oral versions of this song and when referring to “little spirits,” Kee would often use the word manitoowaans. James (1830:309) uses a similar word to title his category of “insects,” and he notes, “man-e-toanse-sug, or man-e-toanse-ug, are small spirits; not exactly synonymous in this applica- tion with our word ‘insects’, but used to designate, indiscriminately, all very small animals.”23 Mary Moose said that manitoowaans is a very old word, and in this song it was probably referring to the little rey as a “fairy.” Some speakers use manidoosh to refer to an insect.24 Mary and Leon- ard Moose said that manidoosh is used in Canada, but that manidoons and manidoosh were the same thing, both meaning ‘little spirit or insect’.

23. Although John Tanner is listed as the author of this narrative, it is probable that these vocabularies are from his editor, Edwin James, so James is given credit here (Geniusz 2009:17–18). 24. Dorothy Whipple, from Leech Lake, did not recognize the word manidoosh, and added that manidoons is the only name for “bug” that she has ever heard. 94 WENDY MAKOONS GENIUSZ

Valentine (1994:649) notes that in his data, manijoosh is the most common word used for ‘insect’, but he also notes manidoosh. He adds “Several lan- guages use a cognate with the meaning ‘worm,’ though the Ojibwes don’t make many distinctions when it comes to insects, worms, and the like, holding them all in extreme contempt.”25 None of the elders consulted on this paper appeared to like or dislike the manidoonsag, but they did seem to nd it a humorous topic of research. Variants for the name for insect can be found in some of the Ojibwe names for insects: opiniimanidosh ‘ladybug’ (Moose Manuscript),26 manoomini-manidoosh ‘ladybug’ (Jones, Jourdain, and Tainter 2011:49), nibaagani-manidoons ‘bedbug’ (Dorothy Whipple), me-nah-koo-sit manetoans ‘strawberry bug’ (James 1830:310). Dorothy Whipple and Mary and Leonard Moose said that asabikeshi- inh ‘spider’ is in a different category from manidoons. Interestingly, in their glossary, Ray and Stevens (1971:13–16) record a word very similar to manidoosh for spider, mani-joosh. Valentine (1994:863) notes that on the southern end of the Severn Ojibwe dialect, manijoosh is used for spider. Valentine also records a combination of these names for spider: asabike- manijoosh. Basil Johnston (1981:31–35) presents a story explaining how Asabikeshiinh was created from Manidoosh.27 His story describes a time when oojiinsag ‘ies’ were spoiling meat faster than the people could hunt it, causing great starvation.28 At the same time Manidoosh, whom Johnston describes as “a small, six-legged, pot-bellied bug,” was also starving. Mani- doosh survived by eating oojiinsag but he had a hard time catching them. He and his brothers, the manidooshag, ask Gichi-manidoo for help, but he tells them they already have the skills they need to catch oojiinsag. Nenabozho watches them try to catch oojiinsag and suggests that Manidoosh design a trap out of the thread he can make.29 He does, catches many oojiinsag, and teaches the other manidooshag to do the same. This helps the people,

25. Valentine (1994:649) suggests that the ending on manijoosh is a diminutive/pejora- tive ending, further hinting at the dislike for insects. 26. The Moose Manuscript has: “opiniimonitosh.” I asked Leonard Moose if this word had to do with opin ‘potato’, and he said it was related to oginiikwe, and not the potato. At this time he also wrote, “Oginikwe opin” on my photocopy of the Moose manuscript. 27. Johnston has “Manitoosh” and “Manitooshug.” 28. Johnston has “ies.” 29. Johnston has “Nanabush.” MANIDOONS, MANIDOOSH 95 and Gichi-manidoo rewards the Manidoosh by giving him “an extra pair of legs” and calling him Asabikeshiinh ‘net-maker’.30

NIIMI’AADAA

The rst line of the second Ojibwe verse is “Niimi’aadaa,” which corre- sponds to the English verse, “Come and dance me,” although a more literal translation is “let’s make him/her dance.” In the original document the word is nimimada, and it is combined with the second line of this verse, “Nimi- mada iskkoday.” When singing this song, “Niimi’aadaa” and “Ishkode” are separate lines following the same melody as the rst two lines of the rst verse: “Waawaatesi/ waawaatesiins.”31 For the purposes of looking at the manidoonsag through the eyes of anishinaabe-izhitwaawin, the line “Niimi’aadaa” is not necessarily a negative statement, but it suggests someone doing something for the singers of the song. As previously mentioned, the line immediately following “Niimi’aadaa” is “Ishkode.” Ishkode ‘re’ is generally recorded as an inanimate noun (Baraga 1878–1880:109;32 Nichols and Nyholm 1995:69), but in this case it may be being treated as an animate noun, either a shortened version of the name already given to the waawaatesi, Waabishkode-manidoons, or it is treated like an animate noun because it is interacting with the singers of the song.33

30. Johnston has “Supp-Kay-Shee or Net-Maker.” 31. In the transcription of “Nimimada,” the second in the original orthography could be a mark for the glottal stop or it could be due to a copying error. The manuscript used is a handwritten copy of a handwritten manuscript, Kee’s personal notebook. Mary Geniusz copied, with permission, various songs from Kee’s personal notebook while going through hours of instruction to become Kee’s oshkaabewis ‘traditionally trained apprentice’. A copying error might well have occurred during this process. Kee does not have a single way of marking glottal stops: sometimes letters are simply grouped together, sometimes there are spaces where the glottal sound would occur, and other times she marks glottal stops with other letters. She may have marked this glottal sound in such a way, perhaps with an , that it was miscopied. 32. Baraga (1878–1880:109) does not use designations of “animate and inanimate,” but he does use an inanimate verb ishkote in one of his examples: “bidikwaknoe ishkote ‘the re makes noise’.” 33. Nichols (1980:21) notes that inanimate nouns can become animate in stories, when they engage in dialogue with other animate beings. 96 WENDY MAKOONS GENIUSZ

Although several interpretations of this line are possible, the singers are prob- ably suggesting to each other that they make Waawaatesi dance. Kee taught me to sing this song while striking small white rocks together. This action provided a nice beat by which to sing the song, but it also caused a small spark to appear each time the rocks made contact with each other. Fireies are often attracted to small sparks of light, such as those made by the rocks, and they do appear to “dance” in the air around such sparks. Interpreting the line as the singers making Waawaatesi dance, hints, however slightly, at another way in which all humans interact with the manidoonsag, as adversaries who must coexist. All humans live with the manidoonsag, and when asking elders about them, this universal human relationship with the manidoonsag emerged several times. Sometimes we struggle for the same food sources; sometimes we treat each other as the food source. One of the rst bug names Whipple gave during her interview was nibaagani-manidoons ‘bed bug’. Later she included words such as odikome ‘he’s buggy’ and iskinaakwag,34 which she denes as “the little eggs the bugs leave in your body and in your hair.” The Moose manuscript has similar words, including ookwe ‘maggot’ and ikwa ‘louse’. The cat- egory of manidoons refers to all insects, including those that live with us and on us. When I asked Leonard and Mary Moose if there were different categories into which the manidoonsag were divided, Leonard Moose said the “bloodsuckers” were one group. He said that the endings -gime and -jime indicated a bloodsucker, and that not all of these were manidoonsag. He said these endings were clearly heard in the words zagaskwaajime ‘leech’ and zagime ‘mosquito’. He also said that the Ojibwe name for vampire bats would contain this ending. The previously mentioned stories describing the creation of the zagimeg suggest that it was once much easier for these beings to kill humans by sucking their blood because they were much larger. One of the manidoonsag who used to be quite prevalent in many Anishinaabe homes is a small larva that lives in and eats only cattails.

34. Iskinaak (-wag) ‘a nit’ or ‘a louse’s egg’. This is my transcription of Dorothy Whipple’s oral communication. It appears elsewhere as “Ishkinak” (Moose manuscript) and “iskinâk” (Baraga 1878–1880:161). MANIDOONS, MANIDOOSH 97

Anyone who has ever worked with cattails has probably encountered this little manidoons. Since childhood, my mother has taught me about using cattails as an insulation material for lodges and other buildings, as batting in quilts, and to make mittens, hats, and other clothes warmer. In recordings of her lectures, Keewaydinoquay (1985, 1989) talks about all of these uses for cattails. Mary Geniusz told a story about the rst time she encountered one of these manidoonsag. She said that as she put in the last stitch in a hand-sewn quilt lled with cattail down, a small larva came up on her needle. She was furious because this quilt was supposed to be a nal proj- ect for her university ethnobotany class taught by Keewaydinoquay. She brought the quilt and the bug, still alive after a night in the freezer, into class, and showed Keewaydinoquay and her teaching assistant. Geniusz says that Keewaydinoquay just laughed when she heard about the larva, saying that bugs used to be considered a part of everyone’s lives but today people are unusually disgusted by them. She added that people would be amazed if they knew about all the little bugs that live in their pillows today. Keewaydinoquay told Geniusz that by throwing her quilt in the dryer, she could kill any bugs that happened to be in the cattail down. In one of her recorded class lectures, Keewaydinoquay (1985) also addresses the issue of “small white worms” in cattail down. In the recording, she has Mary Geniusz tell the class her story about nding the little larva in her quilt. After this story, Kee says that some people are afraid that these little larva will turn into moths and eat their clothes, but she insists if they ate cloth, “they would be on cloths instead of on cattails.” She adds, “It’s just that some people can’t stand the idea of having anything walking or ying of any kind anywhere. Actually there’s much worse things to worry about.” She tells how to kill these larva by tying the cattail down in a pillowcase and putting it in the dryer. She says some of her students put the cattails in the oven but the fuzz got stuck to the side of the oven. Huron Smith (1932:423) also notes the presence of these bugs, and a way that the Anishinaabeg at Lac du Flambeau used to deal with them:

They gather the heads and boil them rst, which causes all the bugs to come out of them. Then they dry them and strip the fuzz, to make a mattress, which they claim is as soft as feathers, but very prone to mat together, so that it must be shaken often and thoroughly. They also make a quilt of it, and from the quilt a sleeping bag. This is declared to be soft and warm in the coldest weather. 98 WENDY MAKOONS GENIUSZ

ISHKODE

The second from last line of the Ojibwe verse is simply “Ishkode” ‘re’, and this seems appropriate because several manidoonsag are connected to re, lightning, and the animikiig, from whom we can get re and lightning. The Ojibwe name for and teachings of at least one manidoons connects this being to the animikiig. Edwin James and Mary and Leonard Moose list animikiidokam on their wordlists,35 and both sources include teachings that connect this moth to the animikiig. Of animikiidokam, whom he identies as a “miller, sphinx, thunder’s louse,” James (1830:309) writes, “This is one of those clumsy sphinxes, or moths, that are found on the ground in damp weather, or after showers of rain, and the Indians imagine that they fall from the Annimekeeg, the beings whose voice is the thunder.” The Moose manuscript identies animikiidokam as a ‘moth’, and in our interview Mary Moose added that this bug comes out two days before a thunderstorm. Our stories connect other manidoonsag to the animikiig. As men- tioned previously, Barnouw (1977:158–159), Laidlaw (1924:54), and Ray and Stevens (1971:92) all present stories where the manidoonsag protect the Anishinaabeg from the animikiig. Johnston (1981:40–45) tells a story connecting the waawaatesiwag to lightning. In this story, which he learned from Wahwahskgone, Johnston describes how the animikiig helped to create the waawaatesiwag with lightning. The young animikiig were causing a lot of trouble by creating terrible storms, which their parents had to suppress. Their fathers try to teach them lacrosse, hoping it will calm them down, but their games only make them create more storms as they played. One of these storms is so powerful that it knocks stars from the sky. These stars fall to earth, break into many pieces, and become waawaatesiwag.

35. Animikiidokam is my retranscription of: “Animikidokam” (Moose manuscript); “An-ne-me-ke wid-de-koam” (James 1830:309). The last syllable of James’ recorded name suggests that there is more than just a short vowel in the last syllable of this name, but I did not retranscribe this word as Animikiidokwam, a thunder’s louse, one of the English names James uses to identify this bug, because Mary and Leonard Moose clearly hear a difference in the ending of this word and “ikwa,” which they identify as ‘lice louse,’ and “odikwam,” which they identify as ‘body bug’ (Moose manuscript). Animikiidokam is probably a kind of Sphingidae moth, which are commonly called “sphinx moths” (University of Michigan; University of Kentucky). MANIDOONS, MANIDOOSH 99

The aforementioned stones used while singing the “Firey Song” also connect the waawaatesiwag to the animikiig. Mary Geniusz says that Kee instructed children to nd these stones in places that the animikiig liked to strike, such as beaches and the base of trees that had been struck by light- ning. The stones sparkled in the sunlight, and I believe they had quartz in them. Densmore (1929:113) writes about a stone containing bits of quartz that can be used to ward off thunderbirds because, as she quotes Mrs. Razer saying, “the thunder bird likes this stone as a hen likes the egg she has laid and will not hurt it.”

GIKINOO’AMAADIMIN

The last Ojibwe line in Kee’s song is, “Gigikinoo’amaadimin,” which she writes, “Kikimaoo mandiman.” This line corresponds to the English verse “Come and teach me,” and a more literal translation is “we (inclusive) teach each other.” In the English verse there is a nal line, after “Come and teach me,” which does not have a corresponding Ojibwe verse: “Lead me to the happy dreams.” The manidoonsag are able, and often quite willing, to teach and help us, and dreams are one way that all beings can teach us. Anishi- naabe-izhitwaawin includes teachings gained directly from the manidoonsag and teachings about how to live based on our coexistence and interactions with these beings. Several of these teachings were already mentioned when describing the connection between children and some manidoonsag. In one of her recorded lectures, Keewaydinoquay (1991) tells a story about a time when one of her students came to her and told her that after making an offering to a plant, an aamoo ‘bee’ had own into the plant and died before he could gather any part of the plant. Kee had the student describe the plant to her, and then she told him that he was being told not to pick that plant because he had misidentied it and it was poisonous. Mary Geniusz remembers Kee telling this story often, and sometimes Kee would add that she told the student he should make an offering to thank the plant and the aamoo, which had given its life, for preventing him from using a poisonous plant. Knowledge of how to coexist with these beings is intertwined with Anishinaabe botanical knowledge. The mats woven of cattails which often cover the waaginogaan ‘wigwam’ are very useful screens on which ooji- insag ‘ies’ congregate but seldom go through. Mary Geniusz remembers 100 WENDY MAKOONS GENIUSZ

Keewaydinoquay recalling the beautiful screens made of cattails that her co-grandmother used to make for her waaginogaan. Kee told Geniusz that there were never any oojiinsag inside her co-grandmother’s waaginogaan. Kee believed that the oojiinsag were attracted to the cattails and did not enter the lodge because they would rather just sit on those cattail screens. Geniusz also remembers Kee telling her classes about watching oojiinsag congregate on the hung cattails that one of her students was using to weave cattail mats. The area around those cattails was y-free. The oojiinsag were just drawn to those cattails. Some of the rst medicinal cures Keewaydinoquay and my mother taught me were cures for bug bites, including chewing a leaf of plantain, Plantago major or Plantago rugelia, and placing it on a fresh bee sting. Smith (1932:380) notes other Anishinaabeg doing this: “The Flambeau Ojibwe soak the leaves in warm water then bind them on bruises, sprains or sores as a poultice. It is also a healing and soothing remedy for burns, scalds, bee stings, and snake bites.” Mary Geniusz was present when one of Kee’s students told her a story about how what she had taught him about plantain saved his mother’s life.36 The student had mentioned to his mother that plantain could suck out the venom of an insect or spider bite. Soon after this conversation, while at an outdoor event, his mother was bitten by something. She found a piece of plantain, chewed it up, and put it on the bite. The next morning she went to see her doctor because the bite was still bothering her. The doctor told her that two other women, who turned out to be friends of hers and were attending the same event, had died the previous day from a spider bite. The doctor concluded that the poultice of plantain had prevented the venom from moving further into her body, thus saving her life. Geniusz remembers the student coming to Kee with a big bag of Florida oranges (his mother lived in Florida). He said to Kee, “a present for you Grandmother,” and walked away. Kee made Geniusz, who was working as her teaching assistant, chase the student down the hallway because she knew that there “had been a healing,” and she desperately wanted to hear the story.

36. Kee always included personal stories about cures when lecturing or teaching about plants, and this story became one of her favorites. MANIDOONS, MANIDOOSH 101

CONCLUSION

I began this research because of my work revitalizing Ojibwe language and culture. I have found no other text dedicated to the role that the manidoon- sag play in our culture, and this paper is my attempt to begin gathering and presenting research on this topic. There are many more examples of the teachings presented in this brief paper, and we have other teachings about the manidoonsag. Although the distinct categories of manidoons and asabikeshiinh are important to acknowledge, it is impossible to completely separate all teachings about these beings because of the similar ways the Anishinaabeg interact with them. Future research should look at both cat- egories of these tiny creatures. Many of the connections made in this paper between the manidoonsag and other beings, especially the asiniig ‘stones’, could also be examined further. Learning more about the manidoonsag, including the many teachings anishinaabe-izhitwaawin has about them, is extremely important because they are everywhere, they surround us every day, and they are connected to everything. Our elders tell us that everything is interconnected and the whole of Creation is reected in every part of Creation.37 It is impossible to see and interpret all of Creation when looking at it as a whole, but we can better understand Creation by looking at it through small portions of it. By letting the manidoonsag teach us, we have an opportunity to look at Creation through them. Manidoonsag might be tiny, but their reection is enormous.

REFERENCES

Baker, Theodore. 1977. On the music of the North American Indians. Trans. Ann Buck- ley. New York: Da Capo Press. Baraga, Frederic. 1878–80. A dictionary of the Otchipwe language, explained in English. A new [2nd] edition, by a missionary of the Oblates. Montréal: Beauchemin & Valois. 2 vols. [1992. St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press.] Barnouw, Victor. 1977. Wisconsin Chippewa myths & tales and their relation to Chip- pewa life. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.

37. I have heard many Anishinaabe elders state similar sentiments, but this specic teaching comes directly from Mary Geniusz. 102 WENDY MAKOONS GENIUSZ

Berens, William, and A. Irving Hallowell. 2009. Memories, myths, and dreams of an Ojibwe leader, ed. by Jennifer S. H. Brown and Susan Elaine Gray. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press. Densmore, Frances. 1929. Chippewa customs. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 86, Washington. [1979. St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press.] Dunn, Anne M. 1995. When Beaver was very great: Stories to live by. Mount Horeb, WI: Midwest Traditions Incorporated. Geniusz, Wendy. 2005. Keewaydinoquay: Anishinaabe-mashkikiikwe and ethnobotanist. Papers of the 36th Algonquian Conference, ed. by H. C. Wolfart, pp. 241–266. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba. Geniusz, Wendy. 2009. Our knowledge is not primitive: Decolonizing botanical Anishi- naabe teachings. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press. Geniusz, Wendy. 2012. Gookooko’oog: Owls and their role in Ojibwe Culture. Papers of the 40th Algonquian Conference, ed. by Karl S. Hele and J. Randolph Valentine, pp. 241–266. Albany, NY: SUNY Press James, Edwin. 1830. A narrative of the captivity and adventures of John Tanner (U.S. interpreter at the Sault de Ste. Marie) during thirty years residence among the Indians in the interior of North America. New York: G. & C. H. Carvill. [1956. Minneapolis, MN: Ross & Haines.] Johnston, Basil H. 1981. Tales the elders told: Ojibway legends. Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum. Jones, Nancy, Gordon Jourdain, and Rose Tainter. 2011. Ezhichigeyang: Ojibwe word list, ed. by Anton Treuer and Keller Paap. Hayward, WI: Waadookodaading Ojibwe Immersion Charter School. Laidlaw, G. E. 1924–1925. Ojibwa myths and tales. Annual archaeological report, pp. 34–80. Toronto: Ontario Provincial Museum Nichols, Frances S. 1954. Index to Schoolcraft’s “Indian Tribes of the United States.” BAE Bulletin 152. Washington DC: Government Printing Ofce. Nichols, John D. 1980. Ojibwe morphology. PhD thesis, Harvard University. Nichols, John D. 1991. Chant to the Fire-y: A Philological problem in Ojibwe. Lin- guistic studies presented to Johh. L. Finlay, ed. by H. C. pp. 113–126. Algonquian and Iroquoian Linguistics, Memoir 8. Winnipeg. Nichols, John D., and Earl Nyholm. 1995. A concise dictionary of Minnesota Ojibwe. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. Quill, Norman. 1965. The moons of winter and other stories, ed. by Charles Fiero. Rice Lake, Ontario: NLGM. Ray, Carl, and James Stevens. 1971. Sacred legends of the Sandy Lake Cree. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, Limited. Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe. 1851–57. Historical and statistical information, respecting the history, condition and prospects of the Indian tribes of the United States, Vol. 5. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo. Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe. Schoolcraft. 1856. The Hiawatha legends and other oral legends, mythological and allegoric, of the North American Indians. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. MANIDOONS, MANIDOOSH 103

Smith, Huron Herbert. 1932. Ethnobotany of the Ojibwe Indians. Bulletin of the Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee, pp. 327–525. Milwaukee, WI: Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee. Treuer, Anton. 2010. Nitam memegwaag: The rst butteries. Oshkaabewis Native Jour- nal. 7.2:90–93 Bemidji, MN: Indian Studies Publications, Bemidji State University. Valentine, J. Randolph. 1994. Ojibwe dialect relationships. PhD thesis, University of Texas at Austin.

,QVHFW,GHQWL¿FDWLRQ:HEVLWHV&RQVXOWHG University of Kentucky College of Agriculture: Cooperative Extension Service. (accessed 10 October 2012). University of Michigan Museum of Zoology: “Animal Diversity Web.” (accessed 13 January 2013).

Personal Interviews Geniusz, Mary Siisip. (Oshkaabewis to the late Keewaydinoquay Peschel) June 2012– October 2012. Moose, Leonard. (Mille Lacs Elder and Fluent Ojibwe Speaker) October 12, 2012 and December 5, 2012. Moose, Mary. (St. James Bay Elder and Fluent Ojibwe Speaker) October 12, 2012 and December 5, 2012. Whipple, Dora Dorothy. (Leech Lake Elder) October 6, 2012.

Recordings of Keewaydinoquay 1985, October 2 and 5. Audio recording of class lectures, University of Wisconsin– Milwaukee. [Original audio tape is in author’s possession.] 1989, January 20–22. Video recording of workshop lecture, West Bend, WI. [Original video tape in author’s possession.] 1991. Video recording of workshop lecture, West Bend, WI. [Original video tape is in author’s possession.]

Manuscripts Consulted Moose manuscript. A handwritten list of insect names recorded by Mary and Leonard Moose. They are the source for all of these names. Used with their permission. [A photocopy of this manuscript was used in this research. The original manuscript is in their possession.] Geniusz manuscript. A handwritten notebook of songs and other Anishinaabe teach- ings complied by Mary Geniusz when she was undergoing training to become Keewaydinoquay’s oshkaabewis, traditionally trained Anishinaabe apprentice. Used with Geniusz’s permission. [Original manuscript is in her possession.]