Cree and Anishnaabe Narrative Medicine in the Renewal of Ancestral Literature

MASKIHKÎYÂTAYÔHKÊWINA - MASHKIKIIWAADIZOOKEWIN: CREE AND ANISHNAABE NARRATIVE MEDICINE IN THE RENEWAL OF ANCESTRAL LITERATURE A dissertation submitted to the Committee of Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts and Science Trent University Naagaajiwanong : Peterborough, Ontario, Canada © Copyright Jud Sojourn 2013 Indigenous Studies Ph.D. Graduate Program January 2014 ABSTRACT maskihkîyâtayôhkêwina- mashkikiiwaadizookewin: Cree and Anishnaabe Narrative Medicine in the Renewal of Ancestral Literature Jud Sojourn This work represents an experiment in developing Cree and Anishnaabe nation- specific approaches to understanding Cree and Anishnaabe texts. The binding premise that guides this work has to do with narrative medicine, the concept that narrative arts, whether ancestral storytelling or current poetry have medicine, or the ability to heal and empower individuals and communities. As âtayôhkêwin in Cree and aadizookewin in Anishnaabemowin refer to ancestral traditional narratives, and while maskihkiy in Cree, and mashkiki in Anishnaabemowin refer to medicine, maskihkîyâtayôhkêwina and mashkikiiwaadizookewin mean simply ‘narrative medicine’ in Cree and Anishnaabemowin respectively. After establishing a formative sense for what narrative medicine is, this work continues by looking at the bilingual Ojibwa Texts (1917, 1919) transcribed by William Jones in 1903-1905 on the north shore of Lake Superior and in northern Minnesota Anishnaabe communities, those spoken by Anishnaabe community members Gaagigebinesiikwe, Gaagigebinesii, Midaasookanzh, Maajiigaaboo, and Waasaagooneshkang. Then focus then turns to the bilingual Plains Cree Texts (1934) transcribed by Leonard Bloomfield at the Sweet Grass Reserve in Saskatchewan and ii spoken by Cree community members nâhnamiskwêkâpaw, sâkêwêw, cicikwayaw, kâ- kîsikaw pîhtokêw , nakwêsis, mimikwâs, and kâ-wîhkaskosahk. The themes that emerge from looking at these texts when combined with an appreciation for the poetics of the Cree and Anishnaabe languages provide the foundation for looking at newer poetry including the work of Cree poet Skydancer Louise Bernice Halfe, centering on the contemporary epic prayer-poem The Crooked Good (2007) and the works of Anishnaabe poet Marie Annharte Baker, focusing on Exercises in Lip Pointing (2003). Each poet emerged as having an understanding her own role in her respective nation as renewing the narrative practices of previous generations. Understandings of the shape or signature of each of the four works’ unique kind of narrative medicine come from looking at themes that run throughout. In each of the four works the maskihkîyâtayôhkêwina – mashkikiiwaadizookewin, the narrative medicine they express occurs through or results in mamaandaawiziwin in Anishnaabemowin or mamâhtâwisiwin, in Cree - the embodied experience of expansive relationality. Keywords: Cree, Anishnaabe, nêhiyawêwin, Anishnaabemowin, narrative medicine, traditional stories, poetics, poetry, literary criticism, literary nationalism, Indigenous, indigenist. iii Acknowledgements kinânaskomitinâw, miigwetch, thank you to all those who have helped with and are currently helping with this project. This being traditional joint Anishnaabe1 and Haudenosaunee2 territory, appreciation is extended to these, and to those nations represented herein, the Cree3 Nation foremost. This work finds guidance in the principles derived from Anishnaabe and Cree ancestral-historical and ancestral- contemporary thinking. For that reason this work belongs to these Nations. I would like to thank Neal McLeod for his guidance and friendship; he has been both hospitable and kind and is a pleasure to work with. His sense of humour is medicine to many as is his insightfulness and understanding of nêhiyawêwin, Cree language and Cree narrative memory. I would like to thank Manitoulin elder and Trent Professor Emerita Shirley Williams, Curve Lake elder and Trent Director of Studies Gidagaamigizi, Doug Williams, Professor of Anishnaabemowin Rand Valentine, and Sokaogon community member Omar Poler for inspiration related to Anishnaabemowin. 1 Anishnaabe means ‘human being’, or as Edie-Benton Benai in the Mishomis Book (1979) has it: ‘those lowered down’ (implying a celestial origin). Anishnaabek, or Anishnaabeg (plural) most commonly means ‘the people’, or more literally ‘the human beings’. ‘Anishnaabe’ is often heard on-reserve as well as Ojibwe (the proposed etymologies of ‘Ojibwe’ are many). ‘Anishnaabe’ herein includes those who have carried the historical moniker Minnesota Ojibwe, Chippewa, Eastern-Ojibwe, Mississaga, and Odawa. There is a newer etymology for Anishnaabe that comes from …Understanding Anishnaabemowin… (2012) by Caroline Helen Roy Fuhst. She gives us the definition for Anishnaabe as such: ‘It is obvious that this one is seen in his own way. He is seen expressing his heredity and birthright as the type of one who is identified as being from this place.’ (Roy-Fuhst 2012, 3) 2 Haudenosaunee means “The People of the Longhouse” and refers to the six nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy – Seneca (Western Door), Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk (Eastern Door) and Tuscarora. 3 For the sake of ease of reading and as it resonates with the common usage of the word Cree among Cree people to refer to themselves as such (whereas Anishnaabeg say ‘Ojibwe’ to refer to themselves only rarely) the word Cree will appear most often herein alongside nêhiyaw ‘Cree Person’ and nêhiyawak ‘Cree People’. Cree is used herein as Cree people often tend to prefer the word contemporarily. One of the reasons for this is that the words describing Cree people in the various dialects of Cree language are many. Some of these are nêhiyaw (singular for Plains Cree person), nîhithaw (singular for Woods Cree person), nîhinaw, and inni in Maskêko Cree. iv I would like to thank Thomas Olszewski, Mjikaning -Rama Anishnaabe visual artist for his conversation. Many of his ideas surrounding the renewal of Anishnaabe life and thought are represented here. I would like to thank William Kingfisher, Mjikaning – Rama Anishnaabe visual artist and scholar for his shared experience and friendship; many of his ideas regarding conceptions of the land and the mystery resident even in urban environments and industrial landscapes are represented here. I would like to say nya:wenh to Patrick Rothyatonnyon for political concepts and insight. I would like to thank Neyaashiinigmiing – Cape Croker author, poet and editor Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm, Metís author and professor Warren Cariou, Algonquin Professor and Ph.D. Director Paula Sherman, and Haudenosaunee Mohawk Professor Dan Longboat for their willingness to guide this project. I would like to thank nbazgim Sarah Sandy, and Chimnissing and Wisconsin families for their support, ideas, and openness. Finally I would like to extend my greatest thanks to the askiy, aki - the land herself - and to kihci- manitow, gizhemnado, the spirit of creation, the mystery. kitoni kaki-miyo-âyâyek kahkiyaw niwâhkomâkaninân kiyawâw I hope all of you, our relations, are well. (nêhiyawêwin) apegish mino-ayaayeg gakina nindinawemaaganiminaan giinawaa. I hope all of you, our relations, are well. (Anishnaabemowin) pegish mnyaayeg kina ndinawemaaganiminaan giinwa. I hope all of you, our relations, are well. (Nishnaabemwin) v Contents Abstract ii Acknowledgments iv Table of Contents vi Selected Glossaries nêhiyawêwin, Plains Cree viii Anishnaabemowin, Nishnaabemwin ix English and other miscellany xiii 1 Introduction 1.1 Aanii, Tânisi - Opening Words 1 1.2 Grounding Questions 11 1.3 Narrative Medicine in Depth 15 1.4 Approach and Emergent Inductive Method 23 1.5 Positionality 27 2 Kinship, the Living Earth, and Laughter: the Many Shades of Anishnaabe Poetics in Ojibwa Texts 2.1 The Poetics of Aadizookewin, Anishnaabe Ancestral Stories 34 2.2 The Poetics of Anishnaabemowin 38 2.3 Megasiáwa William Jones 47 2.4 Contributors to Ojibwa Texts 55 2.5 Layered Intertwined Worlds in Gaagigebinesiikwe Mrs. Marie Syrette’s ‘The Youth Who Died and Came Back to Life’ 60 2.6 Kinship and Land in Episode I of Gaagigebinesi’s ‘Wemiisaakwaa, Clothed in Fur’ 69 2.7 Killing One’s Brother: Reciprocal Relation in Episode III of Gaagigebinesi’s ‘Wemisaakwaa, Clothed-in-Fur’ 79 2.8 Lifelong Great Friendship in Gaagigebinesi’s ‘The Boy that Was Carried Away by a Bear’ 84 2.9 Anishnaabe Poetics in Ojibwa Texts 90 2.10 Ojibwa Texts Conclusions 93 2.11 The Future Possibilities of Ojibwa Texts 95 vi 3 Classical and Ancestral Narrative Knowing in Plains Cree Texts 3.1 What the Plains Cree Texts Mean to Cree Narrative Study 98 3.2 Plains Cree Texts 106 3.3 Leonard Bloomfield 110 3.4 Social Consciousness in Three Stories from the Plains Cree Texts 114 3.5 Kinship and Relation in kâ-kîsikaw pîhtokêw Coming Day’s ‘Man and Bear’ 125 3.6 Humour, Erotica, Family, and Mirrored Realities in sâkêwêw Adam Sakewew's ‘A Bony Spectre Abducts a Woman’ 136 3.7 Syllabics 146 3.8 Plains Cree Texts Conclusions 149 4 maskihkîyâtayôhkêwina: Narrative Medicine in Louise Halfe’s The Crooked Good 4.1 Louise Halfe’s Vision 157 4.2 How Bear Bones and Feathers and Blue Marrow Inform The Crooked Good 166 4.3 wâhkôhtowin and askiy - Relation and Earth 173 4.4 Realistic Poetics: tâpwêwin, debwewin (slight return) 180 4.5 âtayôhkan cihcipistikwân – Rolling Head 191 4.6 Deep Roots: New Literatures as Expressions of âtayôhkêwina 198 4.7 On tâpwêwin and the Layered Comparison of Different Translations 206 4.8 Louise

Load more