Get your own Free Home PageIn late July, deeply devoted friends grieved the loss of a revered Ojibwe Elder, Keewaydinoquay. Her life, its wide-spread influence and the organization she has left behind inspired articles of tribute by both our Vice President, Cindy Bloom, who studied ethnobotany with Kee, and SOARRING member, Connie Meyer, who is also a member of the organization organized by Kee, the Miniss Kitigan Drum.
Many other members of Midwest SOARRING had the privilege of knowing, even if briefly, this inspiring woman, therefore this issue of Wings is honored to print both loving eulogies.
Nakomis Keewaydinoquay Peschel Woman of the Northwest Wind
By Cindy Bloom
A long time ago, over 80 years, the breath of the Northwest winds tore across an Island and the waters in Lake Michigan. A small fishing boat carried a father and mother-to-be through a turbulent storm in an attempt to get from the Island to a hospital for the birth of their child. The baby would be born before they reached the shore. The intensity of the storm grew worse, throwing the mother and child into the rapids. Rescued from the turbulent but purifying waters, the baby girl had made a miraculous appearance into this world.
When the child was 9 months old, her parents laid her on a blanket, believing she couldn't walk yet, while they picked blueberries. As they moved around the area, they saw the baby standing among several bears eating berries. Her name was revealed for the first time: Walks With Bears. "The blueberry bushes laughed and kissed the baby on her lips. The baby laughed and kissed them right back."* It had been since this time that her sacred relationship had begun with the plants. This little girl grew into a beautiful woman. After her vision quest in adolescence, she was given her adult name—Keewaydinoquay: Woman of the Northwest Wind.
Grandmother Kee, as the people that knew, loved and honored her called her, was an Anishinaabeg Elder of the Crane Clan. She became known as a scholar, ethnobotanist, medicine woman, teacher and storyteller. She received a Master of Education Degree from Wayne State University, and had finished all course work for a Ph.D. in ethnobotany at the University of Michigan, winning the Teacher of the Year Award in Michigan in 1975. This is only one example of the recognition she received in the world of academics.
Kee lived on Garden Island and in Leland, Michigan, which for hundreds of years has been the traditional homeland of her people. It was here that Grandmother Kee apprenticed with a venerated Medicine Woman named Nodjimahkwe. Although she eventually held degrees, her teachings came from a place deep inside her heart and spirit. To know the plants and their medicine was to be taught their very essence. They were gifts from Mother Earth to be cared for, respected and honored, and she instilled in her students not only the beauty of all life but how humble we must walk among all of creation. In learning traditional ways, there is a great responsibility that goes along with accepting that knowledge.
Anishinaabeg means The People Who Came From Beyond Where The Sun Rises. Kee's teachings were all based on the traditional teachings of her people. The Sun is acknowledged as the source of all life, and also that which is not clearly understood—the Mysterious.
"It is important when a spirit enters the cycle of life on Earth that his feet be placed on the Sun Trail, the course between his own East which leads with the Sun to the West, and that this trail be walked with honor—to himself, to his family, to his clan, to his tribe, to his Ancestors, to his descendants, to the Creator. This trail of Life is the Gissis Mikana, our own honor trail."*
The life of the People is like the path of the Sun, starting new each morning in the East and traveling West each night. When man becomes worn and tired, his physical self is given back to Mother Earth in gratitude for her nurturing. And so continues the cycle of life for Grandmother Kee, who journeyed into the Spirit World on July 21, 1999. She was honored with a traditional Midewiwin ceremony on Garden Island.
The song and story of Grandmother Kee is a legacy, and the traditions she taught will continue to be lived by all who heard her words and loved her.
References:
Dear Grandfathers, excerpt from Truth Is Stranger by Keewaydinoquay M. Peschel, 1987
Puhpohwee for the People, K. Peschel, 1998*
Directions We Know: Walk in Honor, by K. Peschel, article from Miniss Kitigan Drum, Garden Island, MI, 1979
Keewaydinoquay, Woman of the Northwest Wind: The Life & Philosophy of a Native American Teacher, by Nan Giblin, Associate Dean of the College of Education and Professor of Counseling Education at Northeastern Illinois University, article from Counseling & Values, April 1998, Vol. 42
Special thanks to Dan Creely, for his friendship and conversations, and to Nan Giblin for her article.
Photo:
Kweewaydinoquay
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