Nindoodemag Bagijiganan: a History of Anishinaabeg Narrative Is a Project Interested in How
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NINDOODEMAG BAGIJIGANAN: A HISTORY OF ANISHINAABEG NARRATIVE by Niigonwedom James Sinclair A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF Doctor of Philosophy in The Faculty of Graduate Studies (English) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) April 2013 © Niigonwedom James Sinclair, 2013 ii Abstract Nindoodemag Bagijiganan: A History of Anishinaabeg Narrative is a project interested in how Anishinaabe narratives define Anishinaabeg culture and community. It argues that Anishinaabeg expressions are bagijiganan, offerings where unique relationships Anishinaabeg carry enact a dynamic sense of art, identity, and nationhood. Embodying an intellectual praxis called mino- bimaadiziwin (“the good life”) from the past to the present, Anishinaabeg narrative artists are defining the processes of Anishinaabeg culture. I argue that Anishinaabeg narrative bagijiganan are embedded in principles found in the Anishinaabeg Nindoodemag, the totemic system. Articulating the specific and interconnected ways circles of Anishinaabeg relationality operate, Anishinaabeg Nindoodemag is formed through two concepts, enawendiwin (strands connecting all parts of creation) and waawiyeyaag (interwoven systems of circularity). These come together to construct nindinawemaganidog (all of my relations), a law found in traditional expressions like treaties, birchbark, and beadwork and contemporary forms like poetry, paintings, and novels. Anishinaabeg narrative bagijiganan exemplify how Anishinaabeg relationships grow while continuing an inclusive sense of nationhood through the Nindoodemag. In two opening sections, “First Thought” and “First Word,” I overview Anishinaabeg Creation narratives, tracing how Anishinaabeg conceive of the universe as constituted by language and how narrative bagijiganan gesture towards mino-bimaadiziwin. In “Bezhig,” I argue that Anishinaabeg Nindoodemag is the manifestation of this process and Anishinaabeg narratives adopt one (and often more) parts of the totemic system to enact and embody this praxis of relationship making. In “Niizh,” I investigate Mikiniik (Turtle) Bagijiganan, demonstrating how narratives provoke and produce relationships forged through the mind and the imagination. In “Niswi,” I examine Maang (Loon) Bagijiganan, demonstrating how narratives produce and fortify iii relational strands within Anishinaabeg community. In “Niiwin,” I study Ajijaak (Sandhill Crane) and Waabajijaak (Whooping Crane) Bagijiganan to show how narratives provide opportunities for affiliation with other communities. And, in “Naanan,” I look at Makwag Bagijiganan to show how narratives demonstrate the complex ways bodies forge relationships of biology and sustainability within a material world. In the concluding section, “Oshki Nasanaamo, New Breath,” I suggest that Anishinaabeg narratives suggest a radical sense of Anishinaabeg nationhood by offering reciprocal methods invested in responsibility – a path of mino- bimaadiziwin iv Preface A portion of the chapter entitled “Niizh” is forthcoming as “K’zaugin: Storying Ourselves Into Life.” Centering Anishinaabeg Studies: Understanding the World Through Stories. Eds. Jill Doerfler, Heidi Kiiwetinepinesiik Stark, and Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair. Ann Arbor: Michigan State UP, forthcoming 2013. A portion of the chapter entitled “Niswi” was previously published as The Tragic Wisdom of Kahkewaquonabay, Peter Jones, Anishinaabe Autobiographer. MA Thesis. U of Oklahoma, 2006. A portion of the chapter entitled “Niiwin” was previously published as “Trickster Reflections, Part I.” Troubling Tricksters: Revisiting Critical Conversations. Ed. Deanna Reder and Linda Morra. Waterloo, ON: Wilfred Laurier UP, 2010. 21-58. A portion of the chapter entitled “Niiwin” was previously published as “A Sovereignty of Transmotion: Imagination and the ‘Real,’ Gerald Vizenor, and Native Literary Nationalism.” Stories Through Theories/Theories Through Stories: Native American Storytelling & Critique. Eds. Gordon Henry Jr., Nieves Pascual Soler, and Silvia Martinez Falquina. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State UP, 2009. 123-58. A portion of the chapter entitled “Naanan” was previously published as “Tending to Ourselves: Hybridity and Native American Literature.” Across Cultures, Across Borders: Canadian Aboriginal and Native American Literatures. Ed. Paul DePasquale, Renate Eigenbrod, and Emma LaRocque. Peterborough, ON: Broadview, 2009. 239-58. v Table of Contents Abstract ....................................................................................................ii Preface .................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents .......................................................................................v List of Figures .......................................................................................... vii Acknowledgements .................................................................................. viii Dedication ................................................................................................x Epigraph ................................................................................................. xi First Thought ............................................................................................ 1 Our Creation ........................................................................................................ 1 Amidst Change There Was Constancy .................................................................. 4 Voices Arising from the Literature ....................................................................... 14 Bagijiganan ........................................................................................................ 18 First Word .............................................................................................. 25 We are Anishinaabeg .......................................................................................... 25 “A Spontaneous People” .......................................................................... 30 “From Whence Lowered the Male of the Species” .................................... 39 How We Live: Anishinaabeg Bagijiganan ............................................................ 48 Aadizookanag and Dibaajimowinan: Narratives for Life’s Sake ........................... 54 Marks of Mino-Bimaadiziwin ............................................................................. 58 Bezhig: Anishinaabeg Nindoodemag .............................................................. 68 “The Insignia of Their Families” ......................................................................... 68 The Heart of Anishinaabeg ................................................................................. 77 “A blessing” ....................................................................................................... 92 Nindinawemaganidog ........................................................................................104 Niizh: Mikinaak Doodemag Bagjiganan ........................................................ 111 Dream Shells .....................................................................................................111 “I made no discoveries, but came away as I went” ..............................................120 “central stories surrounded by smaller peripheral stories, but all are interconnected” .................................................................................................128 K’Zaugin: Anishinaabe Language & Literature ...................................................148 Niswi: Maang Doodemag Bagijiganan .......................................................... 164 Home Calls .......................................................................................................164 Migrating Communities .....................................................................................168 Niizhwaaso-ishkoden Ningaanaajimowin ...........................................................175 The Tragic Wisdom of Peter Jones, Kahkewaquonabay ......................................185 “The red man is gone, and a strange people occupy his place” ..................190 “Brothers and Friends, I arise to shake hands with you” ..........................204 Niiwin: Ajijaakwag zhigo Waabajijaakwag Doodemag Bagijiganan ..................... 217 Spontaneous Calls .............................................................................................217 Diplomatic Interventions ...................................................................................226 Wenabojo and the Cran(e)berries .......................................................................233 A Nation of Transmotion ...................................................................................239 Naanan: Makwag Doodemag Bagijiganan ...................................................... 262 Whole Scratches ...............................................................................................262 The Bagijiganan of Wind and Writing ................................................................270 “blackened red reddened black” .......................................................................277 vi Oshki Nasanaamo, New Breath ................................................................... 297 “Our Story” .......................................................................................................297 A Nationhood of Our Own ................................................................................307