Odawa Mnwaadizi
Odawa Culture
We do not seem to have a dictionary type defined concept of culture. I have chosen the word mnwaadizi meaning living well. Perhaps the reason we have not defined culture is we have no compulsion to study others. Our culture seems to be one of acceptance with a nature basis. We lived in a natural environment whose gifts allowed us to survive. We respect and value our gifts and the gifts that allowed all others to survive.
Where are we now? The most disturbing problem we face is the geographic separation of our people. While the Tribal offices and most Tribally sponsored activities are centered around Little Traverse Bay in Northern Michigan our people are scattered across the world with the largest concentrations in the Detroit, Lansing, Grand Rapids, and Chicago. During the Removal Era started by President Jackson many Odawa were taken by the US government to Kansas, some escaped to live with western Tribes and, some escaped removal by moving to the Manitoulin Island area. In the following century and half many of our children were adopted by non-Indian families and separated from the Tribe and their roots. The worst form of separation was the US government forcing our children's attendance at boarding schools. The schools forbade the use of our language, force our children to cut their hair, and prevented families from being together.
It is amazing that we are still together enough to be a Tribe. We are and that is one of the cultural aspects of our people that can't be overlooked, we are impossible to tear apart. Even those who've been adopted out eventually come around and say they always knew they belonged here.
The questions I always ask myself... who were we? who are we now? who will we become?
When I think of Tribalism and the world of Capitolism that surounds us I wonder which will carry us throught the next century. We always traded, but our trade was for the good of the whole. Today we are immersed in the "me" society. We are in the same tug of war that is effecting indigenous peoples around the world. All to often they turn to the western ways and Big Macs. I hope that some form of Tribalism survives in each of us.
Migwetch,
gitchikun