New Deal in KS: Rich in Relics of Indian Life (MKBMA)

Eagle Dance, ca. 1948
Screenprint

10 1/8 x 7 1/2 in.

Private collection, promised gift to USD 259 Wichita Public Schools

Woodrow “Woody” Crumbo
Bodéwadmik (Citizen Potawatomi)
Born 1912, Lexington, Oklahoma
Died 1989, Cimarron, New Mexico

New Deal in KS: Rich Relics of Indian Life (MKBMA)

Flowering Moon

'Anishnabe Star Knowledge' by Minisa Crumbo Halsey:

Bozho Nikon, Hello. My bone, 

Let us, Anishnabé, begin by ‘making a prayer’ of gratitude and thanks for all of the gifts: 

Nengosek: the Star Beings 

Sekmekwe: our Mother Earth 

Gizes: our Father-Sky Sun 

Debek-Gizes: the Grandmother Moon 

Mamogosnan: Creator … we pray that we might see clearly and be seen clearly … and walk the straight path laid down for us in the Seven Grandfather’s Teachings, which give us the Good Ways by which we might live ...

To read entire article:  Anishnabé star knowledge - Potawatomi.org

Hownikan-March-2024-Digital.pdf (potawatomi.org)

Heart of Mother Earth

The Heart of Mother Earth loves and cares for us all, all ways, all days ... now and forever more. 

AHO!
Grandmother

Excerpt from 'Spirit Talk': The Mother Earth and all beings that live upon and within her body have their own unique medicine ways and it is of these ways that we seek to learn the languages, uses, and songs. Our Mother is a sentient being with an evolutionary path of her own, and when sufficiently sensitized it is possible for us to feel her heartbeat through the soles of our feet and entire being.

From 'The Eagle Dance' by Woody Crumbo:

The Eagle Dance, like most American Indian dances, was inspired and conceived by one person through a dream or vision. Such a spiritual manifestation was considered a sacred gift of the gods. The blessed recipient of the dream would call about him his fraternal brothers or clan -- in some cases the entire tribe -- and demonstrate the dance while relating the significance as revealed to him by the "spirit world" ... in this, the Pottawatomi Eagle Dance, the ceremonial significance is to depict certain actions and evolutions the American Eagle. It was first revealed in a dream which came to one Kiowa, a Pottawatomi brave. 

Title: Eagle Dance

Artist: Woody Crumbo

Culture: Native American; Citizen Potawatomi

Date: mid-20th-Century

New Deal in KS: Rich in Relics of Indian Life (MKBMA)

To the Stars Through Art: A History of Art Collecting in Kansas Public Schools, 1900-1950

Art Bytes: 'Moccasin Makers' by Archie Blackowl (MKBMA)

Best Practices for the Care of Art in Schools (MKBMA)

SJC Educators Conference (MKBMA)

Voices of the West pgs. 46-49 (MKBMA)

Woody Crumbo (MKBMA)

Heart of Mother Earth

The Heart of Mother Earth loves and cares for us all, all ways, all days ... now and forever more. 

AHO!
Grandmother

Excerpt from 'Spirit Talk': The Mother Earth and all beings that live upon and within her body have their own unique medicine ways and it is of these ways that we seek to learn the languages, uses, and songs. Our Mother is a sentient being with an evolutionary path of her own, and when sufficiently sensitized it is possible for us to feel her heartbeat through the soles of our feet and entire being.

'Anishnabe Star Knowledge' by Minisa Crumbo Halsey:

Bozho Nikon, Hello. My bone, 

Let us, Anishnabé, begin by ‘making a prayer’ of gratitude and thanks for all of the gifts: 

Nengosek: the Star Beings 

Sekmekwe: our Mother Earth 

Gizes: our Father-Sky Sun 

Debek-Gizes: the Grandmother Moon 

Mamogosnan: Creator … we pray that we might see clearly and be seen clearly … and walk the straight path laid down for us in the Seven Grandfather’s Teachings, which give us the Good Ways by which we might live ...

To read entire article:  Anishnabé star knowledge - Potawatomi.org

Hownikan-March-2024-Digital.pdf (potawatomi.org)

Sacred Berries Ceremony

 From May 15, 2020:

Bozho and a very good Rainy morning to all, from the Bodewadmin Longhouse... an early summer, ancient and current women's teaching that can all be active within ... providing valuable focus in and on the women's seat of the soul, the woman place. A proven and worthy tool by which to live in harmony with the Creator and the natural world.

 

Migwech!

My love,

Minisa


Yes, Jaguar Woman, there IS a strawberry-demen teaching and yearlong right of passage ceremony for the young girl becoming woman. The sacred berry is representative and guardian of the life carrying qualities of the womb and the potential of 'new life coming' medicine. 
 
The other berries, which follow later in the season, represent the certain cellular division 'medicines' of the 'new life coming' and as a metaphor of the young girl becoming woman capable of 'Carrying Life and the Waters of Life'.
 
In the demen-spring or early summer ceremony she and a circle of women will pray and prepare to seek, greet, offer thanks for the gift, gather and invite the 'medicine' to join in and with, the girl's body through the coming 13 moons, at which time the demen give-away ceremony will be seated and complete, with a feast prepared for all participants.
 
Through this time, the 'young woman becoming', will observe a 13 Moon strawberry fast. She will then be offered the demen and other traditional foods, at the conclusion feast to FEED and NOURISH her life and herself, the life of the circle, her people, and ALL life, 'in a good way'.
From this time onward she will be woman, having merged with this beautiful and powerful 'medicine', assisting her transition into the beauty and responsibility of an adult woman.

Migwech Creator, Sekmekwe, Gizes and all of the Demen for these and all of the gifts, known and unknown, spoken and unspoken ... mine (and) breathed alive.

Respectfully retold, in the appropriate season.
Dawn Woman 1IK

Honoring Plant People -- Excerpts from 'Spirit Talk':

The plant people go a long way toward offering and providing us, the two-leggeds and others, with the physical materials we need to live life ‘in a good way’. Plant fiber provides assorted fibers for the weaving of clothing, nets, mats, basketry, footwear, hammocks, housing … plant people share their bodies that our own might live, and their medicines by which we may maintain, heal, and restore health and balance. 

The green beings hold all wisdom and knowledge. Mother Earth and all beings that live upon and within her body have their own unique medicine ways and it is of these ways that we seek to learn the languages, uses, and songs. Our Mother is a sentient being with an evolutionary path of her own, and when sufficiently sensitized it is possible for us to feel her heartbeat through the soles of our feet and entire being.

From 'The Eagle Dance' by Woody Crumbo:

The Eagle Dance, like most American Indian dances, was inspired and conceived by one person through a dream or vision. Such a spiritual manifestation was considered a sacred gift of the gods. The blessed recipient of the dream would call about him his fraternal brothers or clan -- in some cases the entire tribe -- and demonstrate the dance while relating the significance as revealed to him by the "spirit world" ... in this, the Pottawatomi Eagle Dance, the ceremonial significance is to depict certain actions and evolutions the American Eagle. It was first revealed in a dream which came to one Kiowa, a Pottawatomi brave. 

Title: Eagle Dance

Artist: Woody Crumbo

Culture: Native American; Citizen Potawatomi

Date: mid-20th-Century

New Deal in KS: Rich Relics of Indian Life (MKBMA)

To the Stars Through Art: A History of Art Collecting in Kansas Public Schools, 1900-1950

Art Bytes: 'Moccasin Makers' by Archie Blackowl (MKBMA)

Best Practices for the Care of Art in Schools (MKBMA)

SJC Educators Conference (MKBMA)

Voices of the West pgs. 46-49 (MKBMA)

Woody Crumbo (MKBMA)

Flowering Moon

'Anishnabe Star Knowledge' by Minisa Crumbo Halsey:

Bozho Nikon, Hello. My bone, 

Let us, Anishnabé, begin by ‘making a prayer’ of gratitude and thanks for all of the gifts: 

Nengosek: the Star Beings 

Sekmekwe: our Mother Earth 

Gizes: our Father-Sky Sun 

Debek-Gizes: the Grandmother Moon 

Mamogosnan: Creator … we pray that we might see clearly and be seen clearly … and walk the straight path laid down for us in the Seven Grandfather’s Teachings, which give us the Good Ways by which we might live ...

To read entire article:  Anishnabé star knowledge - Potawatomi.org

Hownikan-March-2024-Digital.pdf (potawatomi.org)

Little Winters

Flowers of Redbud and Dogwood are two 'Little Winter' stories ...
Artist: Minisa Crumbo
Title: 'Little Winters'
Size: 13" x 13"
Medium: Oil

RedBud Winter

This one comes first, when the redbud trees bloom ... when spring has truly seated sometime in the third week of January. Then a warm spell.

Dogwood Winter

The second little winter comes when the dogwood trees bloom. Then a warm spell.