Living Our Language_ Ojibwe Tales & Oral Histories - Anton Treuer [35]
[5] Each [group of] people was told something different. They were [each] given religions for their use. The Indian people were given these Drums and the medicine dance and tobacco to use. That is how the Indian people were gifted.
[6] And on the other hand, that white man created his knowledge of everything from a book. He wrote it down in a book. But today all people don’t understand it. The [Indian] shouldn’t read things in that. And he shouldn’t derive things from that book for his study. Now that would be education to no avail; one would not be able to learn about the status of the Indian there in how he was gifted himself. And he couldn’t write down somewhere things that were not to be written.
[7] Eventually as he was so gifted the [Indian] made a certain way of marking things about his religion. However, he wrote that on birch bark. He didn’t write down words. Symbols were used about what he did; those were the inscriptions. He did not write words on the birch bark there. So he only wrote about how the Indian’s life would turn out. Also [put] there was the Indian’s knowledge of how the animal was to be used. So it was spiritual. Well, everything relating to how the spirit made Indian people was considered spiritual. The white man, however, uses the passages in that book to get his knowledge of how he believes today. And also from time to time he writes changes to that book.
[8] So that’s what I told them there when they asked me about integrating the religion gifted to the Indian and that of the white man. You see each people was gifted differently including those who are on the other side of the ocean. And those Jewish people have different religious beliefs themselves. And these Asian people have different religious beliefs too. Well, the white man wanted to try to take the Indian’s [god-]given religion away from him. That’s what I wanted to tell them over there. That was after that time they came to ask me about that. My brethren didn’t call upon me again to go over and talk to them as I had now told them everything about why I know that.
MELVIN EAGLE
MELVIN EAGLE (b. 1931), whose Anishinaabe name is Miskwaanakwad (Red Sky), is a gifted oratorical artist. He grew up hearing legends told by his grandfathers Chief Migizi and Jim Littlewolf, both of whom were prominent religious and political figures in their community. When he was a boy, his uncles and a number of older men from the community at Neyaashiing forced him to sit and listen to their stories about history, culture, and daily life.
When he was first sent to day school at Onamia, Minnesota, Melvin spoke nothing but his first language, Ojibwe. The school was conducted entirely in English, and, through the power of immersion and embarrassment, Melvin quickly acquired knowledge of the English language. However, he never forgot Ojibwe, and, throughout his schooling in reading, writing, and arithmetic, Melvin continued to be instructed about Big Drum, hunting, fishing, and ricing by numerous elders in his community.
As a young man, Melvin was commissioned to hold one of the permanent seats on the Mille Lacs Big Drums. There he began his formal education in the songs and speeches used at the ceremonial dances. He would eventually become a member on the Ladies Drum at Mille Lacs and two more Big Drums. The miraculous story of his healing at the Drum and his reaffirmed faith in Ojibwe culture is detailed in the following narratives.
As Melvin approached middle age, his knowledge of the Drum and fluency in the language proved to be assets well appreciated by his peers, and on one of the Big Drums Melvin was raised up to the position of Drum Chief. From then on, Melvin was to be not only a student of Indian ways, but also an increasingly recognized and respected teacher of Ojibwe culture.
Melvin worked several jobs, sometimes as far away