A spiritual society

Jiisakiiwin

Another well-known society among the Anishinaabeg is the Jiisakiiwin, also known as the Shaking Tent or the Juggler's Tent. Among the Anishinaabeg, a particularly powerful and well-respected spiritual leader who had trained from childhood is called a Jaasakiid or Jiisakiiwinini, also known as a "Juggler" or "Shaking-tent Seer." In the past they were hunted down and murdered by both Canadian and United States officials as being "individuals who endanger society". - Mereana Taki

Ojibwa woman

Old Photos

2 Bannock men in 1900, Jim McKie and Pongah

Native American Indian - Old Photos

Yap-My (Yan Maow, Big Nose)
Bannock, 1912

What WE SAY

African Native American girl in regalia by Ngaronoa Taki

November 5, 2011, I invited Adruma to attend a Black Woman's conference at Bowie State University. I was doing the opening ritual, and wanted him to assist with his drum. During the conference some things, as I look back, stuck out. The women elders, who spoke, and the younger women who spoke passionately from their center space collectively brought into what should have been a circle, but the rigidity of conference rooms leaves the circles to the imagination, and one's capacity for visualization and the awareness of each of the women's wombs carried into the sacred space ceremony created.

Four things came into the center of the discoveries:

1. Play
2. Innocence
3. Surrender
4. Return to childhood

Adruma Victoria shared an insight with me the day after the conference.

"The planet is one where the creatures who possess the highest potential to crown existence with joy vibrate in the realm of false ambition. The surrender to the original will heal the collective family dysfunction." 

All that could be expressed afterwards was in the attentive silence that fell between us. 

- Gregory E. Woods, 

Keeper of Stories 6.1.13

beautiful dancer in regalia

beautiful dancer in regalia