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Archives for March 2023

A Wiindigoo Story With a Meaningful Lesson

March 21, 2023

Thank you to Clinton Keeper (storyteller) and Emily Thomson (transcriber)

Clinton Keeper shares this story told to him by his grandmother, Maggie Duck (Nenawan), who was told this story by her father, John Duck (Mahkoocens)

Maggie Duck (Nenawan)
Photo: American Philosophical Society (Hallowell Collection)
This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is A182-crop-1024x1018.jpg
John Duck (Mahkoocens)
Photo: American Philosophical Society (Hallowell Collection)

It was a long time ago. There was a village. In that village, there was an orphan boy who had lost his parents and siblings, and all he had was his grandmother. Back in that day, you’d say they were one the poorest in the village. They lived on the outskirts of the village. They called that boy Waakeygan.

The kids would ask that boy if he wanted to play – he had no friends – but they just did that so they could pick on him. They would invite him to go play with them along the fire, but they would heat up these willow sticks, poke his legs, and hurt him. He was lonely and had nobody else to play with.

Later on, a Council of Elders and Medicine Men and Chief heard something was coming for them: it was Wiindigoo.

They heard through a ceremony that the Wiindigoo was going from village to village eating people. Wiindigoo is a spirit, a cannibal.

So those old people got together in the Chief’s lodge and wigwam, passing their pipe around… who’s going to challenge the Wiindigoo that’s coming? Every Shaman that sat around the fire didn’t have the gift to challenge the spirit, this being that was coming towards them. Finally, one of the old men said, “Somebody must know something. Somebody must have a gift. There has to be. We cannot just perish like that.”

As they were smoking there, one of the Elders spoke. “There’s a boy in this village, who is without parents and lives alone with his grandmother. Seek him out.”

So in the meantime, Waakeygan was with his grandmother in their wigwam and that old lady was working on tending to his wounds where those kids put those willow sticks on his legs. She was cleaning his wounds, and as that boy was sitting there, he told his grandma, “Hurry up. Wrap up my legs; they’re coming for me.”

He just knew something.

The old lady put medicine on his leg, wrapped it, and sure enough – the young braves opened the wigwam door and then they said, “You’re wanted. The Council of Elders wants to meet you, and the Chief.”

And he said, “I know.” The boy went with them; told his grandmother not to be scared.

So he went to go see them. And then, as soon as he walked in, before anyone could say anything, the young boy spoke. He says, “Move the village. You go down west. You will come across a lake and you’ll stay there. No matter what you hear, do not come to the east. Tell everybody I will come.”

Photo: Hidehiro Otkae

So that morning, they dismantled the whole camp and they all moved west. The boy took off in the opposite direction, to the east, to meet this spirit or entity. When he got there, he got to a big lake and he went to the centre of that lake and he stood right there, and he could feel the cold, cold breeze coming. It was bone-chilling cold there. And then when he looked across, he could see trees swaying in the distance – something big is in that forest.

He could see snow falling off the trees. Then all of a sudden, he sees something coming out of the bush and onto the lake. It was massive; it was as tall as those trees. So that boy, he stood there. He stood his ground on the ice facing that thing that’s coming.

And then that thing, Wiindigoo, yelled. He looked up at the sky, and he yelled a loud cry. Wiindigoo just got big.

Photo: Hidehiro Otkae

That boy yelled out a big war cry, and the little boy just got big; even bigger than Wiindigoo.

Then Wiindigoo did the same thing again; he just got bigger and bigger. Then the boy did the same. He got bigger and bigger. They did this a few times until they were really, really big.

And then, they started fighting. All of a sudden, that boy grabbed Wiindigoo and threw him on the ice. Have you ever heard a rock being dropped on a fresh lake and dooo (reverb sound). That sound. You just hear that. Where that village was, where they were camping, where they moved, they could just hear the sound of the ice and they could hear that sound, like thunder.

They were saying, “Oh, my, they’re fighting already.” They could feel the ground vibrating off and on. They see light sparks in the east. Then all of a sudden, it went quiet.

So those old people, those Council of Elders were sitting around a fire in the Chief’s wigwam. They were smoking their pipe and then all of a sudden, they heard a big thump right outside the wigwam.

Photo: Hidehiro Otake

They opened the door and there was a big giant toe outside. That boy was standing right there beside that big giant toe. That was Wiindigoo’s toe.

He had natural gifts, that kid; spirits that watched over him. He become a great warrior for his people.

This is the story that was told to me by Maggie Duck. This is the way I tell it, how it was told to me. It is important to keep the story in its original form.

The lesson of the story

What I learned from there is to respect people no matter who they are, no matter how small they are. You know? We don’t know what watches over people. That’s why it’s always important to respect people when you meet them because you don’t know what carries them or what watches over them. It’s not the person that you offend. That person may forgive you but the one that’s watching over that person may not forgive you. That’s why it’s important that we always talk polite to people. Even when we travel, we always travel with tobacco and offerings out of respect.

Feature Photo: Hidehiro Otake

Filed Under: Cultural Heritage, Traditional Story, Uncategorised Tagged With: Legends, Lessons, Spirit, Wiindigo

How to Prepare Meat for Smoking

March 21, 2023

By Naomi Moar, Little Grand Rapids First Nation

Preparing meat for smoking takes days. After the quarters are prepared and cut up, and undesired pieces are cut off, the meat has lost approximately 1/4 of its weight. All the sinew and fat are cut away.

Cutting the Meat

Each chuck is cut down the middle and then along the ‘bottom’ to create a 1/8 inch thick slice. As you cut along the bottom, you are unfolding the meat to prepare a long piece for smoking.

Depending on how many sticks you have made for the smoke shack (I usually make five), you can smoke a whole hind quarter in about six hours depending on the thickness of your cut.

Naomi Moar, Little Grand Rapids First Nation

The smoke shack

This is where you will hang your meat. The smoke shack is made of red willow (after it turns white) for the frame and cooking rods.

The wood, fire and time

The wood to burn is poplar. The fire cannot be too high otherwise the meat will burn. Because we are removing the moisture from the meat, the session should take about six hours at a low burn.

Because of the cost of fire-retardant canvas, I have yet to procure one.

Everything I have learned, I learned from my grandmother.

Photos: Naomi Moar

Filed Under: Cultural Heritage, First Nation Communities, Food, Indigenous Traditional Knowledge, Uncategorised Tagged With: harvesting, Little Grand Rapids First Nation, smoking meat, Traditional Foods

Songmeter Project – First Results Are In

March 21, 2023

Thank you to contributors Councillor Eddie Hudson, Poplar River Lands Guardians Norway Rabliauskas and Brad Bushie, Dr. Jeff Wells, and Elisha Corsiga (writer)

Our Elders and their ancestors have cared for our Traditional Lands for over 6,000 years.

Protecting Pimachiowin Aki, which over 200 bird species rely on for survival, is an important example of how we care for the land,” says Poplar River First Nation Lands Councillor Eddie Hudson.

Since 2016, Poplar River Lands Guardian Norway Rabliauskas has been collaborating with scientists from Audubon’s Boreal Conservation program to better understand how songbird populations are changing in the face of climate change.  

The first results of the ‘Songmeter Project’ are in.

“Songmeters record bird sounds,” says Guardian Brad Bushie, Poplar River Lands Guardians Program. Using knowledge of the land, Poplar River Lands Guardians placed the recording units at four sites across the traditional territory, he explains.

The number of bird species recorded allows us to analyze population changes over time,” adds Dr. Jeff Wells, Vice President for Boreal Conservation at National Audubon Society.

Map of survey sites in Poplar River First Nation and its location within Pimachiowin Aki, courtesy Audubon

  • Guardians placed Songmeters in four survey sites in Poplar River First Nation throughout the spring of 2016
  • 71 bird species were detected
  • At least 18 of the species detected have more than 70% of their breeding range confined to the Boreal Forest biome, meaning their survival relies heavily on healthy landscapes like Pimachiowin Aki 
  • Two species were detected on more than half of all recordings: 
    • White-throated Sparrow 
    • Swainson’s Thrush  
  • Five species were detected on more than 30% of all recordings:
    • Blackburnian Warbler
    • Ovenbird 
    • Song Sparrow 
    • Bald Eagle
    • American Crow
Song Sparrow
Photo: Hidehiro Otake
Bald Eagle
Photo: Lorne Coulson
  • At least 20 species listed as special concern, threatened, or endangered by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) are believed to occur within Pimachiowin Aki. The Songmeter project captured recordings of three of the bird species listed by COSEWIC: 
    • Common Nighthawk
    • Eastern Whip-poor-will
    • Canada Warbler  
Common Nighthawk
Photo: Christian Artuso
Eastern Whip-poor-will
Photo: Christian Artuso
Canada Warbler
Photo: Christian Artuso
  • National Audubon Society’s recent study, Survival by Degrees, found that over two-thirds of North American birds are moderately or highly vulnerable to a global average temperature increase of 3°C by 2080. This includes many species detected at Poplar River First Nation, such as:  
    • Bay-breasted Warbler
    • Cape May Warbler
    • Canada Warbler
    • Blackburnian Warbler

How the collaboration began

“We first talked with the Guardians and community, and asked if they would be interested,” says Jeff.

Norway says the project is a good fit for his community. “One of our goals is to develop new research partnerships. Plus, the project builds on the monitoring work we have already been doing.”   

Indigenous Knowledge and Western Science come together

The Songmeter project relies heavily on Guardians, and the process of collaborating starts with listening and respect. 

Listening to Guardians’ advice is crucial in a project like this, where Indigenous Knowledge and Western Science combine to create strong, respectful conservation efforts, says Jeff. “Things always overlay with Indigenous knowledge.” 

Guardians serve as stewards and scientists and are central to a program that pairs data collection with Indigenous ecological knowledge to track changes across the site over time. 

Chad Wilsey, Vice President and Chief Scientist, National Audubon Society, in his blog about his work and experience in Poplar River First Nation

Guardians have a good understanding of the land and decide where to install Songmeters.

“Our Guardians’ hard work and understanding of the land have contributed to the project’s success,” says Councillor Eddie Hudson. “We are proud of the work they do.”

Guardian Norway Rabliauskas installs a Songmeter.

Songmeters last for a long time between battery changes. Recordings are saved onto SD cards for researchers to analyze.

The project continues

This past year, Guardians installed Songmeters in the same four locations as 2016. The 2017-2021 recordings have yet to be formally processed but since the start of the project, the number of species the team has identified has “greatly expanded,” Jeff says.  

Thousands of hours of song

Analyzing bird sounds can be a difficult and time-consuming task.

“What happens with this kind of work is that you can get thousands of hours of recordings, and you can imagine someone sitting down and listening… You can only get through so much,” says Jeff.

The relatively small team picked random samples, listening to four 10-minute recordings from each day collected in 2016.

187.3 hours of recordings were sampled between May 27 and July 1, 2016 

Birds of Poplar River Project – First Results

New technology to speed up the process

Recently, the team implemented BirdNET in their identification process. BirdNET is an artificial intelligence algorithm developed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. This bird identification machine can quickly go through recordings to identify specific bird species. 

The team will use BirdNet to help identify the recordings taken in Poplar River First Nation from 2017–2021. 

Looking forward

In the upcoming year, National Audubon Society and Poplar River First Nation Lands Guardians  Luke Mitchell, Brad Bushie and Youth Guardian Aiden Heindmarch will work together to expand the areas where Songmeters are placed. They plan to set up Songmeters in deeper and more remote areas of the forest.

“One place takes a couple of days to get to by boat,” Jeff says. “It’s exciting to see what we might find in these places.”

He hopes that over the years more First Nation communities can use Songmeters when developing their monitoring programs. He also hopes for more collaborative initiatives with communities in Pimachiowin Aki.

“If that’s what communities want to be a part of,” he says, “there are a lot of interesting things to discover.”

Filed Under: Birds, Indigenous Traditional Knowledge, Management & Protection, Species of Conservation Concern, Uncategorised, Wildlife Tagged With: Audubon, bald eagle, canada warbler, Common Nighthawk, Eastern Whip-poor-will, guardians, Poplar River First Nation, song sparrow, songmeter

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