Thursday, November 30, 2023

Potawatomi Autumn Vocabulary

Potawatomi Autumn Vocabulary:
Autumn = dgwaget
Basket = gokbenagen
Black = mkede
Blessing = bgosendagwzewen
Corn = ndamen (mdom-in)
Feast = wewesnakewin
Gourd = shishigwIn
Many = dso
Moon = tpukises
Pumpkin = wapkon
Squash = kwesmen (kwes-men)
Water = mbish
West = we’jbkeshmok (where the sun goes down)

Potawatomi Sacred Plants Vocabulary:
Cedar = kishki
Sage = wabshkebyek
Sweetgrass = wishkpemishkos
Tobacco = se’ma

Tuesday, November 28, 2023

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

Title: Eagle Dance
Artist: Woody Crumbo
Culture: Native American; Citizen Potawatomi
Date: mid-20th-Century

Crumbo explores in his art the traditions and ceremonies of his own tribe as well as those of the Creek, Sioux, and Kiowa nations, and says of his work, "I have always painted with the desire of developing Indian art so that it may be judged on art standards rather on its value as a curio—I am attempting to record Indian customs and legends now, while they are alive, to make them a part of the great American culture before these, too, become lost, only to be fragmentarily pieced together by fact and supposition."

Sunday, November 26, 2023

Autumn Harvest

I invite you to consider taking this harvest and honoring time into a personal earth walk whether in community or solitude. In this way we begin to approach the Gaa Biboon Ked, the Winter Wisdom Teachings whereby we begin to ‘Fire Our Seeds of Inspiration’ for the new year to come. Begin watching for the Orion Constellation to appear low in the eastern sky at early night, as the ancient harbinger of Winter Bringer. 

The Spirit plate is prepared by selecting very small and representative pieces of each feast food on the table ... mindfully collected with the left, offering hand, taken outside, and offered with a prayer of recognition and gratitude ... I like to raise the plate and turn it to the seven directions, lastly approaching the Mother Earth four times before lowering the plate to the earth ... Shewen dagzewin! A blessing is visited upon us this day!

Friday, November 24, 2023

Excerpts from 'Spirit Talk': Spirit Plate

The Spirit plate makes out recognition and gratitude visible to the beings who are making a gift of their seed history, and when properly addressed they can become actively involved in an ongoing life path through other agents, namely ourselves. Their seed histories, with cultural family trees grounded in the natural world that make contributions of inestimable value and tensile strength to the DNA of any bonding entity, are at least as hugely long and venerable as ours.

Most of these connections and contributions are beyond our ken, but heartfelt gestures of gratitude and respect for these living things are ours to express through remembering our connections to the best of our abilities—where and when they lived and grew, who harvested them, how they were handled and for what purpose and by whom. The questions are always, what do we have to do that these things will live?

The Spirit plate is prepared by selecting very small and representative pieces of each feast food on the table ... mindfully collected with the left, offering hand, taken outside, and offered with a prayer of recognition and gratitude ... I like to raise the plate and turn it to the seven directions, lastly approaching the Mother Earth four times before lowering the plate to the earth ... Shewen dagzewin! A blessing is visited upon us this day!

Wednesday, November 22, 2023

Potawatomi Autumn Vocabulary

Potawatomi Autumn Vocabulary:
Autumn = dgwaget
Basket = gokbenagen
Black = mkede
Blessing = bgosendagwzewen
Corn = ndamen (mdom-in)
Feast = wewesnakewin
Gourd = shishigwIn
Many = dso
Moon = tpukises
Pumpkin = wapkon
Squash = kwesmen (kwes-men)
Water = mbish
West = we’jbkeshmok (where the sun goes down)

Potawatomi Sacred Plants Vocabulary:
Cedar = kishki
Sage = wabshkebyek
Sweetgrass = wishkpemishkos
Tobacco = se’ma

Saturday, November 18, 2023

Autumn Harvest

I invite you to consider taking this harvest and honoring time into a personal earth walk whether in community or solitude. In this way we begin to approach the Gaa Biboon Ked, the Winter Wisdom Teachings whereby we begin to ‘Fire Our Seeds of Inspiration’ for the new year to come. Begin watching for the Orion Constellation to appear low in the eastern sky at early night, as the ancient harbinger of Winter Bringer. 

The Spirit plate is prepared by selecting very small and representative pieces of each feast food on the table ... mindfully collected with the left, offering hand, taken outside, and offered with a prayer of recognition and gratitude ... I like to raise the plate and turn it to the seven directions, lastly approaching the Mother Earth four times before lowering the plate to the earth ... Shewen dagzewin! A blessing is visited upon us this day!

Thursday, November 16, 2023

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

Title: Eagle Dance
Artist: Woody Crumbo
Culture: Native American; Citizen Potawatomi
Date: mid-20th-Century

Crumbo explores in his art the traditions and ceremonies of his own tribe as well as those of the Creek, Sioux, and Kiowa nations, and says of his work, "I have always painted with the desire of developing Indian art so that it may be judged on art standards rather on its value as a curio—I am attempting to record Indian customs and legends now, while they are alive, to make them a part of the great American culture before these, too, become lost, only to be fragmentarily pieced together by fact and supposition."