As we Bodéwadmin relatives travel and gather, in Shawnee or by word of our “talking paper” the Hownikan, our personal medicine wheels are broadened and gladdened. Our minds, hearts, bodies and spirits come forward to sit in a circle to learn, have some fun and dance.
We look up into the summer night sky and remember our Anishnabé Creation Story which tells us many stories of our relations, the Star Beings. Our Creation Story tells us of how our ancestors, the first people, were “lowered down” as the star people or hot rocks. That is why some of us learn this story by the ceremony of the sweat lodge. This is also a place where we can go into the lodge, sit with the Creator, pray, be purified and renewed as we sit and remember who we are and from whence we came. AHO!
Potawatomi artist Minisa Crumbo Halsey leaned into her creative side by painting and writing during the 2020 pandemic and lockdown. One of her paintings explores traditional star knowledge. It is a subject she shared with the community during an April 3, 2024, presentation at the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Cultural Heritage Center.
Pondésé Nëgos, or Winter Maker, focuses on the constellation known as Orion’s Belt. Pondésé Nëgos is most visible in the night sky during winter in the northern hemisphere, from January to April. The painting features a boy and girl in traditional clothing, standing by the Canadian River under the Tree of Life.
The constellation was named Orion’s Belt in the second century by astronomer Ptolemy, but its origins are even older to the Potawatomi. Unlike constellations named for Greek myths, Potawatomi constellations describe seasonal activities, such as the time when wild rice is harvested or the approach of spring.
As an artist, Crumbo Halsey hopes the painting will encourage Potawatomi to embrace the traditional star knowledge Nishnabé people have relied upon for hundreds of years.
Crumbo Halsey said as a child she observed the stars while her father pointed out the locations of the morning star, the evening star, the North Star and more.
“These are the first things that he began pointing out that I knew had importance, enough for him to point out and give me a teaching on,” she said. “That (taught me) I could follow my inner spirit of willingness and enthusiasm to learn and be connected with the mother earth and the father sky, sun and the Creator, which is the first, most beautiful and enduring gifts that the Creator gave us.”
Stars and origin stories
Stars represent the origins of the Potawatomi people.
“When we talk about the stars, we’re talking about origin,” Crumbo Halsey said. “We are people that are lowered down from the stars. The Seven Sisters, the stones that were lowered down from the sky people and the star people became the teachings for the stones that go into the sweat lodge ceremony. That’s one of the things that makes it so powerful is that they represent us and our star ascent or descent.”
Star stories may also answer questions about the afterlife.
“One of the reasons that we get a (Potawatomi) name, aside from it being our true identity that we live and work and grow in, is that when we walk on, the ancestors know how to call. They know what our name is, and they can call us on home. And we begin that journey to return to the stars,” she said.
“The star beings include not only where we came from, but the very, very deep and profoundly beautiful medicine of traditional teachings. Like, ‘Where do we go when we walk on?’ Well, we have a teaching on that.”
Crumbo Halsey said Indigenous societies all over the world have lived in regard to the stars, to know when to plant, when to harvest, when to prepare for seasonal changes and more. Constellation stories are tied to the Potawatomi way of life and relationships to nature.
“There are specific stars that will appear in the spring. One of them is the crane constellation that appears specifically between spring and fall,” she said. “The crane guides the geese going north, and they fly right under that constellation. And in the fall, when they migrate south, you can look up and they’ll be under the constellation of the crane.”
Potawatomi artist Minisa Crumbo Halsey gives a presentation on traditional star knowledge teachings at the CPN Cultural Heritage Center in April 2024.
The story of the sucker fish moon represents an important sacrifice.
“Up in the north country, sucker fish appeared in March. They have a moon named after them because at the end of the winter season, the game was scarce, and people were hungry. A fisherman went out and cut a hole in the ice. The sucker fish spoke and said some of us are going to sacrifice ourselves for you, because we know that you’re hungry. They allowed some of them to be caught and they lived. We always remember the sacrifice,” Crumbo Halsey said.
Stars also hold importance when it comes to the Seven Grandfather Teachings.
“The Seven Grandfather Teachings are love, respect, bravery, honesty, wisdom, truth and humility. It is from these things, the star story and these Seven Grandfather teachings, that we come to know more about ourselves and define ourselves and our connection and relationship to all living things in a good way.”
Resources
Crumbo Halsey said there are several books available that offer more information. She recommends the works of the late Jim Thunder, a well-known Forest County Potawatomi elder, Nishinawbe Aski First Nation author Joseph Ogimaawab Sutherland and more. Many titles are available on Amazon or through tribal retailers.
“Amazon has several titles that deal with star stories and ‘creation myths.’ I don’t like the word ‘myth’ because it indicates there are questions about the validity of the story. I prefer ‘creation stories,’ but it will be under ‘myths’ on Amazon,” she said.
Combined with a smartphone app called Star Guide, Crumbo Halsey said the knowledge can be shared all year long.
“With Sky Guide, you can take the cell phone up in the night sky and point it to any star in the night sky, and the message will come up about what constellation we’re looking at,” she said.
She recommends using the Star Guide app in conjunction with the Star Chart created by Kyle Malott of the Pokagon Band Potawatomi. Malott’s chart features traditional Anishnabé constellations and their names. Access the Star Chart online at cpn.news/starchart.
Reclaiming knowledge
Crumbo Halsey is eager to share what she has learned with the Potawatomi community. During the year, she will share her knowledge through a series of articles in the Hownikan.
She has an optimistic view of reclaiming traditional knowledge.
“Some of us have shame that we weren’t raised traditionally and don’t know these things. We feel like we can’t access it, or we won’t be able to understand it, or someone’s going to laugh at us, or we’re going to fail in our endeavor. But, if we go with the seven grandfather teachings, we are armed with a shield. We are armed with a shield of truth,” she said.
For more information about her art and books, visit Crumbo Halsey’s website.
As we Bodéwadmin relatives travel and gather, in Shawnee or by word of our “talking paper” the Hownikan, our personal medicine wheels are broadened and gladdened. Our minds, hearts, bodies and spirits come forward to sit in a circle to learn, have some fun and dance.
We look up into the summer night sky and remember our Anishnabé Creation Story which tells us many stories of our relations, the Star Beings. Our Creation Story tells us of how our ancestors, the first people, were “lowered down” as the star people or hot rocks. That is why some of us learn this story by the ceremony of the sweat lodge. This is also a place where we can go into the lodge, sit with the Creator, pray, be purified and renewed as we sit and remember who we are and from whence we came. AHO!
Beginning with our star travel ... all stories are about travel. The birchbark scrolls tell of our Bodewadmin ancestors taking prophetic direction while living still in the land now called Nova Scotia. This direction was listened to and heeded as sacred. The people began to make the 7 westward movements, walking, paddling, sometimes camping for years before the next spirit directive spoke of when and where to travel next.
Our Nishnabe Creation Story recounts the travels of different beings who set out on a sacred charge to find a place for our ancestors to live. And now, we are them.
We now sit together ... to remember who we are and what we have.
Bozho, ni je na jayek. Hello, my bone. How are you all?
Today, each of us have traveled to be together, to learn of and to remember who we are and what we have ... we, Anishnabe people of the place of the fire. We, People of the three tribes confederacy ... we, Citizen Potawatomi Nation of Oklahoma. We, whose moccasin paths have led us to many far away places. We, who have traveled many trails. And still, we are here.
We are here to celebrate.
Migwech, Mamogosnan, Creator, for all of the gifts. Let us now think on these things. Let our Spirits grow fat and happy as we remember who we are and what we have.
Whether Tribal members attending the Family Reunion Festival want to learn how to research family history, work on creating items for their regalia or even take a tour of the CPN Eagle Aviary, there are plenty of opportunities to explore Potawatomi culture this weekend.
Absorbing Potawatomi culture and history
For those who want to appreciate and learn more about Potawatomi culture, there are several different options.
Tours to the CPN Eagle Aviary are available each day. Tours begin at 7 a.m. Friday and Saturday and at 8 a.m. Sunday and are available each hour, with the last tour beginning at 11 a.m. Those wanting to participate must register at the CHC. A bus will transport those who have signed up from the CHC to the Aviary.
An Aviary Q&A session will also take place from 2 to 4 p.m. Friday and 1 to 2:15 p.m. Saturday in the CHC Long Room.
For those who want to learn more about the Potawatomi language, there will be Potawatomi Language Research presentations from 2:15 to 2:45 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the CHC Library.
Lacrosse/stickball demonstrations will take place from 10 to 11 a.m. and 3 to 4 p.m. Friday, then from 10 to 11 a.m. Saturday.
On Saturday, there will also be a presentation about Uniontown from noon to 1 p.m. in the CHC Long Room. Tribal Legislator Jon Boursaw, Tribal member Scott Holzmeister and Dr. Blair Schneider, Ph.D., from the Kansas Geological Survey will discuss findings from the Uniontown Cemetery in Kansas.
The annual Family Reunion Festival of Citizen Potawatomi Nation is a celebration of Native culture for the Potawatomi. Festival is for CPN members and their immediate households (spouses and those dependents living in the home of the Tribal member).
Activities include Grand Entry, cultural classes, a dance contest, and General Council. Tribal elections are decided during the Family Reunion Festival.
Mid-summer is upon is and it is at this time we honor our position on the good red road ... that path of the summer-winter axis of seasons. We are sitting, metaphorically, in the south: the red seat of love and abundance, and within the seed marriages that we so carefully gathered, sorted, chose to come forward with us and prayed over for good life. We sit now, with that abundance not only of spirit but the spirit intentions carried forward from ALL previous years. The Seed and prayer intentions that were held and carried forward not only by each of us, but also by previous generations, and then given gracious home by Sekmekwe, our Mother Earth.
Now is our time of celebration and meditation. Would each of us avail ourselves daily of the powerful blue butterfly mudra that seats our inner and personal path of duality and unity consciousness? When we do so, the demen berry of our hearts can refocus and strengthen, radiating out and saturating our beingness ... providing an ongoing positive reinforcing and restructuring of the cellular and mental elements of our entire mind, heart, body, and spirit construct. Immediately, to some extent, depending upon our personal evolutionary positioning.
Oh, my! What a time we are moving within. Be firm, constant, and of good heart. For we are always becoming ... within ourselves and also within the circle basket of tightly woven community.
Now, as we sit in the south ... let us recall that we are on the good red road facing north, the direction of the white spirit of winter. The summer fires we are integrating at this time will be the ones by which we will be warming ourselves in the coming winter.
By the compass of the blue butterfly, on our right wing is the direction of the east, youth, spring, mental, and yellow gift. On our left wing is the direction of the west, medicine direction, mature life, water, and the color of black or dark blue. So, we sit al-ways within our personal place, al-ways with a place in the vast, beautiful, mercurial circle of life. We learn, grow, observe, and speak from a unique place, with our own wisdom and communications to share. Let us discover, build, enjoy, and be unafraid to show our original faces. And the blue represents the center of the medicine wheel wherein grows the tree of life, us.
As the medicine wheel talks this month, I would offer the black ash tree basket video teaching/ meditation. This video contains both the linear and circular teaching elements as the basket always emanates from a central, radial place ... as do we.
This video comes from my northern, 3-Fires Anishnabe-Potawatomi tribal background in Michigan. These teachings are truly simple reflections of the goodness and well-being attained through right connection with nature. That is about us and all living things, animate and inanimate ... now and forever more.
May the balanced light of life be always upon and within us. AHO!
