my issues: how being only part ojibwe...

Post Reply
User avatar
Jack-o-diamonds
Forum Member
Forum Member
Posts: 173
Joined: Fri Nov 30, 2012 3:32 pm
Location: Nowheresville

my issues: how being only part ojibwe...

Post by Jack-o-diamonds »

makes me feel real dumb when studying and practicing and even encountering beings from that faith.

i've had some pretty intense experiences with it...
I've gone through the challenges to find my guardian spirit,
i've seen the miigis and they told me incredible things,
i've had the dream required to become a Mide Priest,
i've seen Mishipeshu come to me in dreams where he tried to kill me, but in return i gave offerings and worshipped him...

i mean shit, you'd think i was an active part of the Anishinaabe tribe.
but i'm not. i'm a white girl with only 1/8th the blood and grew up in white suburbia.

how do you guys deal w/ that? how do you study and practice Native American faiths without feeling like a poser?
"oh, thou clear spirit, of thy fire thou madest me, and like a true child of fire, i breathe it back to thee."

User avatar
Rin
Forum Member
Forum Member
Posts: 1198
Joined: Mon Jan 23, 2012 2:21 pm

Re: my issues: how being only part ojibwe...

Post by Rin »

While people tend towards feeling an affinity with traditions to which they have a genetic connections, it's hardly set in stone. Spirituality is about what's on the inside, genes don't matter if you approach the subject matter with the appropriate maturity and respect.
"The path of the Sage is called
'The Path of Illumination'
he who gives himself to this path
is like a block of wood
that gives itself to the chisel-
cut by cut it is honed to perfection"

- DDJ, Verse 27

"It's still magic even if you know how it's done." - Terry Pratchett

entropic

Re: my issues: how being only part ojibwe...

Post by entropic »

Apparently 1/8 is seen as more than enough for the average american åsatruers to call themselves norwegian/swedish/whatever, so I don't see why it should be worse for others [rolleyes]

But unrelated to that, I understand what you mean since I feel the same about some things and this is even worse since got 0 connection of any type. After a while I just decided to ignore the whole issue since it didn't seem to make any practical difference except I felt like an idiot. If it helps, first you get used to feeling stupid and then you start forgetting about it...just ignore those that talk about it being 'unfitting' in any way, its only their theory about such things and not a fact.

User avatar
Rin
Forum Member
Forum Member
Posts: 1198
Joined: Mon Jan 23, 2012 2:21 pm

Re: my issues: how being only part ojibwe...

Post by Rin »

Just look at how many people work with cultures that haven't existed for centuries. Although if I had a dollar for everyone who claimed to be descended or reincarnated from an ancient egyptian priestess or pharaoh... :|
"The path of the Sage is called
'The Path of Illumination'
he who gives himself to this path
is like a block of wood
that gives itself to the chisel-
cut by cut it is honed to perfection"

- DDJ, Verse 27

"It's still magic even if you know how it's done." - Terry Pratchett

Atehequa
Forum Member
Forum Member
Posts: 45
Joined: Sun Apr 28, 2013 9:11 pm

Re: my issues: how being only part ojibwe...

Post by Atehequa »

Jack-o-diamonds wrote:makes me feel real dumb when studying and practicing and even encountering beings from that faith.

i've had some pretty intense experiences with it...
I've gone through the challenges to find my guardian spirit,
i've seen the miigis and they told me incredible things,
i've had the dream required to become a Mide Priest,
i've seen Mishipeshu come to me in dreams where he tried to kill me, but in return i gave offerings and worshipped him...

i mean shit, you'd think i was an active part of the Anishinaabe tribe.
but i'm not. i'm a white girl with only 1/8th the blood and grew up in white suburbia.

how do you guys deal w/ that? how do you study and practice Native American faiths without feeling like a poser?
Greetings Jack-o-diamonds

It was a wise decision on your part in giving offerings to Missipessi, but are you sure the great panther came to make a kill?

Having been a child who was raised by NDN parents who were almost fully assimilated into the white suburbia and society they moved to from agency lands out west. Until my teenage years, I knew little about my people's culture. Thank goodness for both a traditional grandmother and great aunt who taught me much.

Far away from most of my kin, I'm more an active part of my wife's people who are also of an Algonquian tribe.
"We know the predator, we see them feed on us, we are aware to starve the beast is our destiny"

User avatar
TheSeeker
Forum Member
Forum Member
Posts: 487
Joined: Tue Jun 08, 2010 6:55 pm

Re: my issues: how being only part ojibwe...

Post by TheSeeker »

Oh, Maaaan!
I wrote this AWESOME reply --well I thought it was, anyway-- and when I tried to preview it, it just frikken vanished; and now I have to go pick up my little Warband from daycare, and head off to swimming lessons with them.
I'll try agin' later tonight, 'cuz it was relevant.
Criminy, I hate when this happens... [mad2]

User avatar
Jack-o-diamonds
Forum Member
Forum Member
Posts: 173
Joined: Fri Nov 30, 2012 3:32 pm
Location: Nowheresville

Re: my issues: how being only part ojibwe...

Post by Jack-o-diamonds »

Atehequa wrote:
Jack-o-diamonds wrote:makes me feel real dumb when studying and practicing and even encountering beings from that faith.

i've had some pretty intense experiences with it...
I've gone through the challenges to find my guardian spirit,
i've seen the miigis and they told me incredible things,
i've had the dream required to become a Mide Priest,
i've seen Mishipeshu come to me in dreams where he tried to kill me, but in return i gave offerings and worshipped him...

i mean shit, you'd think i was an active part of the Anishinaabe tribe.
but i'm not. i'm a white girl with only 1/8th the blood and grew up in white suburbia.

how do you guys deal w/ that? how do you study and practice Native American faiths without feeling like a poser?
Greetings Jack-o-diamonds

It was a wise decision on your part in giving offerings to Missipessi, but are you sure the great panther came to make a kill?

Having been a child who was raised by NDN parents who were almost fully assimilated into the white suburbia and society they moved to from agency lands out west. Until my teenage years, I knew little about my people's culture. Thank goodness for both a traditional grandmother and great aunt who taught me much.

Far away from most of my kin, I'm more an active part of my wife's people who are also of an Algonquian tribe.
I was certain at the time that he was there to kill me, maybe not. i've had an incredible love for Lake Superior my entire life, and i see it in my dreams at least once a week. when i am there i make sure to always do offerings to Mishipeshu, which usually includes tobacco, but sometimes gold (because he has a love for copper, i figure he must also like gold).

it's good to hear your perspective, thank you for sharing!
"oh, thou clear spirit, of thy fire thou madest me, and like a true child of fire, i breathe it back to thee."

User avatar
Nahemah
Forum Member
Forum Member
Posts: 5077
Joined: Wed Apr 01, 2009 9:49 pm
Location: Sunny Glasgow by the Clutha's side

Re: my issues: how being only part ojibwe...

Post by Nahemah »

I can't speak for NA paths.

However,I'm part one cultural identity with some other,too.

My maternal grandfather and my paternal gt.grandmother were Lithuanian,but my grandmother was Scots of Irish descent and my gt.grandfather was Scots of Highland descent with Irish in there too,so I have a split going on between Balt and Celt/Norse.A lot of us,hereabouts have similar in our recent backgrounds.

All Northerners too,lol.My Irish folks were from Antrim.

I walk my own path,but it's one that grew up here,originally from the mixing of people, culture and customs,where Celt,Norse and Balt blended together and it became a tradition in it's own right.

What sings to you,sings to you and what's within you responds.That's how you know best,not through divisions of blood by number.

That's the baseline of my opinion on it. [grin]
"He lived his words, spoke his own actions and his story and the story of the world ran parallel."

Sartre speaking of Che Guevara.

User avatar
TheSeeker
Forum Member
Forum Member
Posts: 487
Joined: Tue Jun 08, 2010 6:55 pm

Re: my issues: how being only part ojibwe...

Post by TheSeeker »

Jack-o-diamonds wrote:how do you guys deal w/ that? how do you study and practice Native American faiths without feeling like a poser?
Okay well, first of all, jack, I'm pretty sure up here in Canuckistan 1/8 blood will get you a Status Card, provided you can trace your family history.
Then you get to be treated like shit by our current totalitarian overlord, Stephen Harper. But, that wasn't really the point of my Post. [rolleyes]

Over the past few years my studies in Esotericism have been leading me away from the more formal magical systems in favour of what I perceive as more universal messages found residing in the Teachings of Indigenous People all over. The big question has become for me, were these same Indigenous Teachings hidden in the folklore and mythology of my own family's ancestry, that of Northern Europe?

I really wanted to stay away from New Agey occult writers, so I stuck with mostly academic anthropology type stuff: Maringer, Eliade, Grimm, and others, and it became a clearer that my Ancestors really did once live in harmony with the Earth; revering it and living more in tune with it’s rhythm, rather than manipulating and dominating it out of greed.

One part of this Path has been that for the last couple of years I've been working much more with the Spirit World; Crossing Over, Journeying, Sitting Out, whatever you want to call it; employing methods still in use by many different groups of Indigenous Folks, from different parts of the world –-not just North America; and namely via drumming, entheogens, meditation; sometimes all at once, sometimes in different combinations; experimentation… Anyway, I got to the point some time back where I can now go to the same place almost every time, but back in early November I went somewhere totally unfamiliar (I think I even Posted about it abstractly over in Shamanism). While there I was confronted by a Dancer standing about 10 yards away, wearing a Buffalo headdress, a blanket, and carrying a lance and a drum. Two weeks later I was introduced to a Haudenosaunee Elder, and I've been regularly attending Ceremonies since.

With the exception of smudging, I don’t do NA Native ceremony at home, nor do I own any regalia. I work with a Northern European paradigm, and I never asked for this to happen. It just did.

So, I think for me the answer to your question is that it’s only posing when the Spirituality is subjugated by insincerity, and the regalia and material culture consequently wind up becoming the focal point, as it has in most established Western belief systems.

User avatar
SkyTemple
Forum Member
Forum Member
Posts: 19
Joined: Sat Aug 17, 2013 11:18 pm

Re: my issues: how being only part ojibwe...

Post by SkyTemple »

All I can say is go with what feels right and works for you. Not everyone knows where they stand with regards to such things, but ultimately it is best to go with whatever you feel resonates with you most strongly.

Asurendra
Forum Member
Forum Member
Posts: 1002
Joined: Fri Jun 28, 2013 11:06 pm

Re: my issues: how being only part ojibwe...

Post by Asurendra »

The Tribes do not hold a copyright on Nature or the Spirits of Nature any more than the Christians or the Moslems do on Divinity (although all of them think they do). Ultimately, you are answerable more to your own conscience than any human authority. If the spirits choose to interact with you in a certain way, do you really think you should tell them "no" because some guy down the road doesn't like it?

Atehequa
Forum Member
Forum Member
Posts: 45
Joined: Sun Apr 28, 2013 9:11 pm

Re: my issues: how being only part ojibwe...

Post by Atehequa »

Asurendra wrote:The Tribes do not hold a copyright on Nature or the Spirits of Nature any more than the Christians or the Moslems do on Divinity (although all of them think they do). Ultimately, you are answerable more to your own conscience than any human authority. If the spirits choose to interact with you in a certain way, do you really think you should tell them "no" because some guy down the road doesn't like it?
'Copyright' is not a term most tribal people would use regarding nature or the spirits of nature.

The tribal guy down the road probably doesn't like the fact that such supposed interactions make a mockery out of his people's ways and ancestors.
"We know the predator, we see them feed on us, we are aware to starve the beast is our destiny"

Ramscha
Forum Member
Forum Member
Posts: 1177
Joined: Wed Jun 19, 2013 7:24 pm

Re: my issues: how being only part ojibwe...

Post by Ramscha »

Atehequa wrote:
Asurendra wrote:The Tribes do not hold a copyright on Nature or the Spirits of Nature any more than the Christians or the Moslems do on Divinity (although all of them think they do). Ultimately, you are answerable more to your own conscience than any human authority. If the spirits choose to interact with you in a certain way, do you really think you should tell them "no" because some guy down the road doesn't like it?
'Copyright' is not a term most tribal people would use regarding nature or the spirits of nature.

The tribal guy down the road probably doesn't like the fact that such supposed interactions make a mockery out of his people's ways and ancestors.
Well, the problem is the same as with the mentioned monopole on divinity. The guy down the road thinks his bloodline and the one ancestor from back there make him the authority of what is real and what is "supposed interaction".

The gods don't really care if your are black or white or if your gramps made love with a tree. If the chemistry is fine, whatelse should stand between interaction and the guy wishing for it except the judgement of the ones interacting with each other?
bye bye

Asurendra
Forum Member
Forum Member
Posts: 1002
Joined: Fri Jun 28, 2013 11:06 pm

Re: my issues: how being only part ojibwe...

Post by Asurendra »

These beings, call them Kachinas like the South-west Tries or Kami like the Japanese (that is the term I prefer for the Devas of Nature); the higher sprits who manage Nature, were here before there were may humans who wandered onto this continent. They were here when the Tribes migrated and left areas, they are here now just as much as they were at any point in history and they will be here even if humans are gone. So, why should such beings be so attached to one group of humans who happen to live some place for maybe a few hundred or even a thousand years? Are they racists? No, they respond to whomever responds to them.

Atehequa
Forum Member
Forum Member
Posts: 45
Joined: Sun Apr 28, 2013 9:11 pm

Re: my issues: how being only part ojibwe...

Post by Atehequa »

Ramscha wrote:
Atehequa wrote:
Asurendra wrote:The Tribes do not hold a copyright on Nature or the Spirits of Nature any more than the Christians or the Moslems do on Divinity (although all of them think they do). Ultimately, you are answerable more to your own conscience than any human authority. If the spirits choose to interact with you in a certain way, do you really think you should tell them "no" because some guy down the road doesn't like it?
'Copyright' is not a term most tribal people would use regarding nature or the spirits of nature.

The tribal guy down the road probably doesn't like the fact that such supposed interactions make a mockery out of his people's ways and ancestors.
Well, the problem is the same as with the mentioned monopole on divinity. The guy down the road thinks his bloodline and the one ancestor from back there make him the authority of what is real and what is "supposed interaction".

The gods don't really care if your are black or white or if your gramps made love with a tree. If the chemistry is fine, whatelse should stand between interaction and the guy wishing for it except the judgement of the ones interacting with each other?
You're talking gods while I'm referring to our ancestor spirits which by the way cannot be channeled by guys like Robert Goodwin or the late Maurice Barbanell.

But do go on and inform me that you are more knowledgeable regarding our beliefs than we.
"We know the predator, we see them feed on us, we are aware to starve the beast is our destiny"

Asurendra
Forum Member
Forum Member
Posts: 1002
Joined: Fri Jun 28, 2013 11:06 pm

Re: my issues: how being only part ojibwe...

Post by Asurendra »

I'm speaking about a particular topic and not ancestors and rites relating to them. I have no comment on that issue. I would naturally separate them but some do not so I should have been more specific. Although, the original post is speaking in the same manner that I am and that is what I am addressing, particularly since he mentioned the Great Lynx and not human tribal ancestors.

User avatar
DozingGreen
Forum Member
Forum Member
Posts: 32
Joined: Sat Nov 08, 2014 1:21 am
Location: Virginia Beach,VA

Re: my issues: how being only part ojibwe...

Post by DozingGreen »

Jack-o-diamonds wrote:makes me feel real dumb when studying and practicing and even encountering beings from that faith.

i've had some pretty intense experiences with it...
I've gone through the challenges to find my guardian spirit,
i've seen the miigis and they told me incredible things,
i've had the dream required to become a Mide Priest,
i've seen Mishipeshu come to me in dreams where he tried to kill me, but in return i gave offerings and worshipped him...

i mean shit, you'd think i was an active part of the Anishinaabe tribe.
but i'm not. i'm a white girl with only 1/8th the blood and grew up in white suburbia.

how do you guys deal w/ that? how do you study and practice Native American faiths without feeling like a poser?
Well I practice Asatru and I'm not full blooded northern european. I'm Puerto Rican, Dutch, and scottish.I guess if you consider that my Puerto Rican ancestry traces back to Spain but that would only be an assumption as I do not know what,and all of the Puerto Ricans in my family are darker skinned, so I would assume I have more Native and African blood in me than Spanish. I used to get alot of flac from white Heathens in my area but I won their respect through my knowledge and my devotion. Whatever is calling to you and works for you is what you should follow. Don't ever let anyone tell you otherwise.Race isn't significant in spirituality,It's just a straw pulled at random. You just happen to be the color you are and born where you were.
"To live is to suffer,To survive is to find some meaning in the suffering"
-Friedrich Nietzsche

User avatar
Frater Chiasmus
Forum Member
Forum Member
Posts: 21
Joined: Mon Aug 01, 2016 5:23 am
Location: Land of Beer, Bratwursts and Cheese

Re: my issues: how being only part ojibwe...

Post by Frater Chiasmus »

Giichi Manitou knows nothing of color.
Nanabozho/Nanabush is always the trickster and our ancestor no matter how much or how little your blood is. Relation is relation no matter the drops of blood. it is still in our blood.
If Nokomis calls to you, listen.

This is coming from a card carrying Ottawa member who has 1/4 blood.

Sadly, we as American Indians are the only people in the United States who have to prove our race. Its ridiculous and stupid. I know entire tribes who are told they are no longer a tribe/a people/a culture- all because the government of the United States said so. My Mother for whom I receive my Native heritage from was not allowed to vote for any President nor a representative in Oklahoma until 1974 simply because she was native. The laws forbade it. Remember, the last Amendment did not cover Native Americans, so we are still undergoing Government persecution to this day. There is much more, but I digress.

If you are called out, please, for the Ancestors, heed the call. There is no shame in having this connection to the Manitous.
There is beauty in darkness for those who dare enter the shadows to embrace it.
- John Coughlin

Post Reply

Return to “Religous superstitions, Folk traditions and Lores”