The Great Lakes: An Ojibwe Perspective
Posted by tip-toe-thru-tulips
The Great Lakes: An Ojibwe Perspective
Posted by tip-toe-thru-tulips
19 Comments
**A note on the compass – The Anishinaabe traditionally orient themselves to the East, which is why East appears at the top of this map. Because the standard orientation is different in European and Anishinaabe cultures, we’ve included the English word “North” and the Anishinaabemowin word “Waabang,” meaning East, on the compass. The compass rose itself is in the form of a medicine wheel, an indigenous symbol used across the continent to denote the four directions.
It’s odd how unsettling a different orientation is.
Once again I will make my case that southern Ontario is effectively an island.
This is awesome. Thanks for sharing. Amazing what simple re-orientation of the map and location labels does to such a familiar territory.
Also-being a frequent visitor to Duluth- I always thought Gitchee Gami was the name for Lake Superior specifically. Looks like that’s the name for all big lakes?
Everyone talks about how long wide Lake Superior is but no one talks about how long Anishinaabewi-gichigami is
Where is Gitchegummee Air headquarters?
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Hah! Let’s see those Cubs fans chant “Boojwiikwed sucks”.
That Gordon Lightfoot was full of shit man
They call all the lakes Gichigami
Do these indigenous cultures customarily think of North as being left?
I 100% missed the title and thought I was having a stroke.
“Sometimes I go about in pity for myself, and all the while a great wind carries me across the sky.”
—Ojibwe saying
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy
I live there.
I almost can’t believe Madeline Island/La Pointe, WI/Mooningwanekaaning
isn’t labeled.
>La Pointe is the spot on which the Ojibway tribe first grew, and like a tree it has spread its branches in every direction, in the bands that now occupy the vast extent of the Ojibway earth; and also that “it is the root from which all the far scattered villages of the tribe have sprung.”
Misi-Zaaga’igan at the very bottom- that’s Mille Lacs Lake. There’s a small reservation there with a really good museum about Ojibwe history in the area, and the lake itself is really pretty too.
AH- so”Gitchee Gumee” in the song wasn’t TOO far off.
Looking at Gaa-niiyogamaag in Wisconsin and assuming it’s the portage where Portage is?
Missing lake of the woods and Lake Winnipeg?