The University of Michigan Native American Student Association (NASA) will host its first traditional Round Dance on November 15, 2025.

Artist: Elladiss Winter, Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians, U of M student
Artist Statement: “November signals the close of cranberry harvest season and makes me think of a story I was told in childhood about waabooz and their journey in search of these berries. It’s a story about patience and learning. These teachings felt especially fitting for a round dance organized by our student community, and I hope I was able to convey them in this year’s art.”

Hear how to say Gaa-bigooshkaaning: Gaa-bigooshkaaning

The event takes inspiration from Gaa-bigooshkaaning (‘the place of the pummeling’,) a name used by the Potawatomi who lived in villages along the Huron River in what is now Ann Arbor. The name refers to a place where community members gathered each year to pound and process corn near a mill. As settlers arrived and began processing wheat, the landscape and traditions changed, but the name and its story remain an important part of local Anishinaabe heritage.

The name “Gaa-bigooshkaaning” is documented in Michigan History Magazine, a publication of the Michigan State Historical Society and its affiliates, the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society and the Michigan Historical Commission, in 1964 (see p. 31). It also appears in the Ann Arbor News article, Let’s Take A Look At Urban Renewal, July 3, 1958. Most significantly, the name remains in living memory, and both the Huron and Pokagon language departments of the respective Potawatomi tribes in Michigan continue to teach it to their students.

For additional information about the Native American history of the Ann Arbor area, see On Anishinaabe Land: Treaties with Indigenous Nations and the Founding of Ann Arbor.

There are many ways that the Anishinaabe tended their relationship with the land and plants around them. Many seeds were harvested and processed for mixing with other foods for storing over winter. The term “bootaage” means to grind something up, and a “bootaagan” and “bootaaganaatig” were used for pounding corn, wheat or other grains. An example of an Odawa bootaagan made around 1880 in Cross Village appears here. The terms “bigooshkaan” and “biisiboojigan” were used to refer to the place where milling happened.

As recently as 1967, Anishinaabe people were still performing the Corn Grinding Dance at powwows in Ann Arbor. A photograph of one such dance, held at a Veterans Powwow on campus, can be found in the American Philosophical Society Archive.

Ethnomusicologist Gertrude Kurath also described the Corn Pounding Dance in her book Michigan Indian Festivals. In the 1950s and 1960s, Kurath worked with University of Michigan alumna and former Little Traverse Odawa tribal chair Frank Ettawageshik’s mother, Jane Ettawageshik, to document a version of the song performed by Benedict Quigno, a Potawatomi from the Mount Pleasant area, along with five women dancers. Quigno learned the song from Dan Pigeon and Tony Trujillo, and the lyrics mention both “mandaminaboo” and “daminabo,” reflecting a beautiful blend of Potawatomi, Odawa, and Ojibwe language and tradition.

Images from the book, Michigan Indian Festivals, by Gertrude Kurath.
Isabella Indian Reservation, June 25, 1966, “Corn Maidens.”

The following Corn Dance song was also taken from the book (page 63) and has been re-created with the help of Sheila Feay-Shaw using the original notes and lyrics.

Listen to the song: Daminabo

The Potawatomi, Odawa, and Ojibwe were all signatories to the 1817 Treaty of Fort Meigs which ceded over 4.5 million acres of land in what is now Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan. Some of this land was specified to support a school which became the University of Michigan and moved to Ann Arbor in 1837.

The campus is divided by the Huron River where Indigenous people have been living for thousands of years. There has always been a rich mix of people sharing their dialects, songs, and dances in Ann Arbor and it is great fun to see that spirit alive again.

The following posters were created for the 2025 Amplifying Indigenous Narratives Educational Summit held in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The Summit was the culminating event for a grant-funded project, Amplifying Michigan Indigenous Histories & Cultures. The project aimed to build educator capacity to teach the fullness of American history through learning to center Michigan Indigenous voices, experiences, and narratives through a framework of inquiry that will support deep student learning.

Ojibwe author Angeline Boulley was the keynote speaker for the Summit. Boulley has worked to improve education for Indigenous children. Her debut work, Firekeeper’s Daughter, was named one of the top 100 young adult novels of all time by Time magazine. It was also a New York Times best seller, and won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Young Adult Novel in 2022.

Essay by poster artist, Stacie Sheldon

This poster is meant to share some special things about the way we exist in this world. Right now, it’s summer, and we are on Anishinaabe Akiing—Anishinaabe Land.

And with us for the Summit is Angeline Boulley, who has shared the Seven Grandfather Teachings with the world in her beautiful debut novel, FireKeeper’s Daughter. So at the heart of the poster are the Seven Grandfathers, represented as seven stones. These teachings are:

1. Zaagi’idiwin (Love)
2. Minaadendamowin (Respect)
3. Aakode’ewin (Courage or Bravery)
4. Debwewin (Truth)
5. Gwayakwaadiziwin (Honesty)
6. Dibaadendiziwin (Humility)
7. Nibwaakaawin (Wisdom)

These teachings from our ancestors guide us in what it means to live a good life.

Then I thought of all the educators I have met and of all the young people. And I remembered a quote from Ojibwe artist and teacher, Isaac Murdoch, of Serpent River First Nation.

He said, “Take young people on the land and get them feeling really good and proud. That will help protect them. The trees watching over them, the clouds, they will get to know these kids. Then they will be well looked after. Even the stars. Take them out under the stars. The stars will look at them and say oh these kids are back, I like these kids. They’ll look after them. They’ll protect them. Things like that really help. It is not a fable or a fairy tale. These things really do work.”

These things brought me to the designs you see today.

In Ojibwe cosmology, the patterns on the back of the loon—maang—are believed to mirror the starry sky, so loons appear here to reflect that connection. They will look over the children.

The constellations shown are Ojibwe constellations visible at this time of year, during Manoominike Giizis, the Ricing Moon, or August. These include Ojiig (Fisher), Maang (Loon—with Polaris within it), and Ajijaak (Crane).

The fireflies—waawaatesiwag—light up the sky like stars, echoing their glow.

In the river, the fish live in relationship with the trees along the banks. The salmon and cedar, in particular, share an important bond—cedars are nourished by the salmon when they enter the rivers to spawn. The hearts and lines drawn on the fish are their heart lines or spirit lines, symbols that show we recognize and honor their spirit.

And lastly, the quote by Richard Wagamese-ba. The “ba” means he has walked on. He wrote:

“Magic’s born of the land and the ones who go places in life are the ones who take the time to let that magic seep inside them. Sitting there, all quiet and watching, listening, learning. That’s how the magic seeps in.”

Richard was a very beloved Ojibwe author. At the age of two he and his siblings were abandoned in the woods in Ontario. They found their way out when they were hungry. At the age of nine Richard was adopted by a family that refused to allow him to maintain contact with his First Nations heritage and identity. The beatings and abuse he endured in foster care and in his adoptive home led him to leave at 16. Richard ended up living on and off the streets and spent some time in prison and then began to shelter in libraries where he loved to read. At the age of 23, Richard found his family and reconnected with his heritage. After he recounted his experiences to them, an elder gave him the name Mushkotay Beezheekee Anakwat – Buffalo Cloud – and told him that his role was to tell stories.

And he did! He is well known for his book Indian Horse which was adapted for film. The quote on this poster, though, comes from his debut novel, Keeper’n Me. The book is about the redemptive power of community and tradition.

And this quote tells of how the land can give us what we need to know how to live. The Ojibwe word for magic is manidoowiziwin. It has in it, manidoowi = to be spiritual, or magical, or to find magic. We are all spirit, we are all magic, we just have to let that seep in.

Richard also once wrote: “All that we are is story. From the moment we are born to the time we continue on our spirit journey, we are involved in the creation of the story of our time here. It is what we arrive with. It is all we leave behind. We are not the things we accumulate. We are not the things we deem important. We are story. All of us. What comes to matter then is the creation of the best possible story we can while we’re here; you, me, us, together. When we can do that and we take the time to share those stories with each other, we get bigger inside, we see each other, we recognize our kinship – we change the world, one story at a time.”

This poster is about just that – seeing each other, recognizing our kinship, finding the spirit, the magic, letting the land and water and sky tell us how to be. Leaving behind the best possible story. Let’s all do that today and everyday. Mi’iw! That is all.

These posters were created through a collaborative effort between Sault Ste. Marie tribal member and Ojibwe.net co-founder Stacie Sheldon, and her dear friend and Tsalagi descendant, Jasmine Culp — a full-time veterinary receptionist who, in her free time, is dangerous with an iPad and a sketch pencil.

Download Poster One

Download Poster Two

The book B Is for Big Top Chatauqua was created to celebrate the experience of attending Big Top Chatauqua, an outdoor concert venue in northern Wisconsin. It combines iconic images created by a wide range of visual artists who have appreciated the sounds and stage for decades. Because Ojibwe people have been caretakers of the lands that are now Wisconsin for millennia, the book includes a translation of every title included in the book.

Note: “Chautauqua” is from the Haudenosaunee family of languages. In Erie, which is no longer spoken, it means “two things connected in the middle” and in Seneca it means “place where fish are taken.” The first Chautauqua venue for music and teaching was located near Chautauqua Lake (western New York), which has a narrow pinch between two long lobes.

Translations by Margaret Noodin

Big Top Words

Francesco Fiscardi’s art is centered on the living nature of landscapes, especially where the land and water meet and have been altered by human life. Writing in Ojibwe about the issues he raises related to climate change, ecological knowledge and human relationships to the earth, Margaret Noodin offers a poetic echo of his images.

Lake Retba is one of many lakes in need of protection and is currently under consideration to become a World Heritage site. A shallow inland body of water north-east of Dakar in Senegal, Lake Retba, also known as Lac Rose, supports dunaliella salina, a form of algae able to survive in hypersaline bodies of water. https://www.lakeretba.com/ For over 4,000 years humans have lived beside the lake, piling used shells into mounds and gathering salt which some researchers say has prevented the lake from filling entirely. https://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/africa/senegal-s-pink-lake-is-on-the-verge-of-disappearing-how-to-protect-it-93979  In recent years as industrialization has impacted the lake, casuarina trees, with their ability to shelter the shoreline, have also been an important part of the equation. https://www.indefenseofplants.com/blog/2019/1/2/meet-the-she-oaks

How we can be part of a universal network, rather than simply see the earth as a set of resources, is one of the questions the art of Francesco Fiscardi raises.

Oginiigamaa

Oginiigaming
In the rose water

misko-ataagibiig ozhaabobidoonaawaa
red algae absorb

ozaawaa-waaseyaawin
the golden sunlight

mii zhiiwitaaganiwiwaad
becoming salt crystals

gaaskanazootawaawaad gete-ensan
whispering to the middens

miinawaa mitigomizh-ikwewan
and the casuarina branches

omaa jiimigooyang Gizhemanidoo
here we are all kissed by God

nandodamaageyang asiginigaazoyang
asking to be gathered.

Compiled by Erik Martin Redix; Tim Cochrane, historical consultant; Dr. Gordon Jourdain and Michael Zimmerman Jr., Ojibwemowin consultants. Map designed by Morgan Swingen of the 1854 Treaty Authority in 2023. Geographic data used were obtained from MnGeo and Ontario GeoHub. This project was supported by a grant from the Administration for Native Americans. Its contents are solely the responsibility of Gichi-Onigaming Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. Audio by Erik Martin Redix.

Read more about the project in the Spring 2024 Open Rivers: Rethinking Water, Place & Community digital journal.

Instructions: Click or tap on the location pins to see and hear the words in Ojibwe. You can pinch and zoom on your mobile device. There are additional words below the map.

[imagelinks id=”1″]

The list below includes words in both western and eastern Ojibwe dialects so you can choose the dialect right for your community or make signs including both dialects. The Western Dialect list was created in Gichi-Onigaming: Grand Portage Lake Superior Band of Chippewa and is read by Margaret Noodin and the Eastern Dialect list was created in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan by Alphonse Pitawanakwat who is from Wikwemikong Unceded Territory. Special thanks to Kylie Rice, Kayla Gonyon, and Andrea Wilkerson for making this project happen. We hope you will use these words for your powwow!

If you use the words from the Powwow Signs project we’d love for you to send us a photo for our gallery. Here are some from the 50th Annual Dance for Mother Earth Powwow.

We all learn better when we can physically interact with the world. For learning some animal names we purchased these small but detailed cupcake toppers that included woodland animals from the northern hemisphere for kids to interact and play with. (Of course the pig and hedgehog are of European origin, but still fun to learn.)

One of the language lessons found in this set of words is the way a speaker can indicate whether the animal is a large adult or a smaller, younger version of the same species. In the case of the animals on this page, they are both. The most common way to do this is to add -ens to a noun (for example: esiban becomes esibanens). In addition to “-ens” some animals take “-oons” or “-iins” or “-aans.” The rules for which ending a word takes are based on the sound of the word and can be complicated so the best approach when learning these words is to practice these endings and simply memorize them.

Another lesson found in these words is that every word has its own history, or etymology. In some cases they indicate that speakers focused on the sounds the animal makes. For example, the word “gookookoo’oo” (owl) is based on the actual call of the owl. When words are constructed this way it is called onomatopoeia. Another example is the word “ma’iingan” (wolf) which incorporates the actual verb “mawi” (cry) which is the sound a wolf makes. Other animal names include the color of the animal or patterns found on the animal as in the case of the “gidagaakoons” which means “little spotted one.”

Look at the words below and think about if you know what they mean. Then flip the card to see if you are correct and to hear how to pronounce the word.

• https://www.amazon.com/UANDME-Woodland-Creatures-Figurines-Miniature/dp/B08HP8T52K?ref_=ast_sto_dp
• https://www.amazon.com/UANDME-Woodland-Creatures-Figurines-Miniature/dp/B085G48BNK?ref_=ast_sto_dp

These two posters show how to recognize some (not all) species of fish in the Great Lakes region and provides their names in Ojibwe.

The Gichi-onimgaming (Grand Portage) poster was produced by the Miskawaa anang, Erik Martin Redix, the Ojibwe Language and Environmental Education Coordinator for Gichi-onigamiing, the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa to help community members and neighbors learn and use the Ojibwe names. *Since the poster was printed, several elders have recalled the word “ajijigawesi” being used for the “menominee” fish. These names and several others are part of the elementary curriculum in Cook County, Minnesota.

The poster was then adapted to add sunfish, large mouth bass, salmon, and muskie, all of which are commonly fished in the Cheboygan, Michigan area. This poster has been installed on the Children’s Trail in Cheboygan.

The names of fish often focus on their physical characteristics and how Anishinaabeg understood them to fit into the systems of lakes and rivers. Many of the words reference the world around us and emphasize the network of beings. Understanding the words will help you understand something about the fish. Some examples:

• “Name” appears in the names of multiple fish and means to be longer than wide.
• Adikameg (whitefish) has a dorsal fin that is like the tine of a fork (badaka’igan) or the tine of an antler on a caribou (adik).
• Ogaa (walleye) whose dorsal fin has multiple spines similar to a porcupine (gaag) and the long thin needles of the white spruce (gaawaandag) which is why the adjective “gaawaa” means to be prickly and the verb “gaawe” is one way to say to be jealous.
• Maazhimegozi (salmon) and maazhamegosens (brook trout) shows that a brook trout is thought of as a small salmon.
• The first part of these three fish words (maazhimegozi, maazhamegosens, maashkinoozhe) has the same implication although the spelling varies slightly: The “maazhi” morpheme of this consistently means to be ugly or different.
• Maashkinoozhe (muskellunge) and ginoozhe (pike) look similar to one another and both their names reference being long-snouted with one of them (maashkinoozhe) also being ugly.

Poster QR Codes

Both posters contains a QR code that when scanned, will bring the person scanning to this page where they can hear the audio below. Recordings read by Michael Zimmerman Jr.

The Cheboygan poster has five extra fish (sunfish, muskie, smelt, salmon, and smallmouth bass) that are not included on the Grand Portage poster. All audio files are below.

The Cheboiganing Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Inc

Izhi-Minoging Mashkikiwan – Place Where Medicines Grow Well

A healing garden and landscape for their headquarters

Izhi-Minoging Mashkikiwan, translated in English to “Place Where Medicines Grow Well”, is a healing garden stewarded by the Cheboiganing Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, located at their headquarters in Brutus, MI. This garden is the main feature of a landscape design proposal created in on-going collaboration with the Burt Lake Band and landscape designer, Eva Roos, through her graduate work at University of Michigan. The healing garden tells the story of traditional Anishinaabeg principles and teachings encoded in the Ojibwe Medicine Wheel and symbolized through plant choices and placement. The garden features over 40 different perennial plant species, all native to the Great Lakes. The planting design is inspired by traditional Ojibwe floral beadwork, with each plant considered as a bead in a beading pattern. Learn more about the history of the Cheboiganing Band, and the historic events that inspired the idea of a healing garden. You can also see the Band featured at the University of Michigan Museum of Art in an exhibit, Future Cache, by Andrea Carlson.

This page contains a word list for every plant who lives in Izhi-Minoging Mashkikiwan. Four names are given – their Anishinaabemowin name, its direct translation to English, the common English name, and its Latin genus and species. Metal name plaques accompany plants within the garden for those who visit.

Thoughtful design ensures low maintenance, four-seasons of visual and sensory interest, and creates a space to support physical, mental, and cultural healing. Studying relationships between plant species determined how to create the plant communities associated with each direction on the Medicine Wheel. Four handmade cedar benches look towards a fire pit in the garden’s center. Izhi-Minoging Mashkikiwan is a gathering place for the community, for learning, to host traditional ceremonies, and to collectively remember experiences — all encircled by a protective and vibrant family of Great Lakes native plants.

The Burt Lake Band and Eva Roos worked together in the summer of 2021 to begin installation of the garden. Through multiple community planting days and gifts of plants, labor, artistry, time, and love, the garden came to life. The Burt Lake Band headquarters now also features additional elements of the original landscape design proposal:

• Enji-Baashkaabigwaniing, translated as ‘Flowering Meadow’ is a small-scale seeded prairie, hosting native plants which thrive in full sun and sandy soils.
• Wiingashkojiimaanan, or ‘Sweetgrass Canoes’, are canoes sunken into the soil, creating a naturally wetter environment, home to lush families of sweetgrass.
• Giizhikikaaning, or ‘Cedar Grove’, features young cedars with plaques memorializing beloved members of the Burt Lake Band who’ve recently walked on.
• Anamikikaag Gitigaaning, or ‘Welcoming Garden, is a humble garden which greets visitors on their way to Izhi-Minoging Mashkikiwan, introducing many of the upcoming plants.

The Cheboiganing Burt Lake Band and Eva Roos continue to update and care for the garden! In summer of 2023, Ojibwe artist, Andrea Carlson, will work with the Band on interpretive signage in Anishinaabemowin to guide visitors through the garden. In the meanwhile, the plants are growing beautifully with amazing vigor. The garden is ever-changing as the plants teach us about their preferences, needs, and nuances of their community. It’s wonderful to watch them grow, and we’re so grateful for how they heal us already. It’s clear they’re happy to be home.

Note: The Healing Garden is not currently open to the public as it is a healing space specifically for the Burt Lake Band. Please engage with it online. You may contact the Band’s executive director, Nola Parkey, if you would like special permission to visit. The Band would appreciate any support in continuing to build their garden.

If you would like to visit the site of the actual burnout you can visit the Chaboiganing Nature Preserve. You could also connect with the Burt Lake Band’s Facebook page to learn when their annual Memorial Walk takes place.

This garden includes plants that support one another. If you want to learn more about those relationships and how it might reflect your own life connections and relationships, download our Relationship Garden Worksheet.

Gichimiigwechiwigo Michael Zimmerman Jr. gii-naadamawiyangid. We thank him for his help as we worked to find the most common or most logical name for every plant. Please note that some of these names are not currently used often but all of them are based on the use or characteristics of the plant. We welcome any feedback you may have or information about alternate names used by speakers of Anishinaabemowin in your community.

Waabanong

Garden-Giiwedinong

Garden-Zhaawanong

Garden-Ningaabiianong

This project began in 2023 when Gichi-Onigaming, Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, and Cook County School District set out to increase the amount of Ojibwe language heard where learning takes place. It is aligned with Minnesota’s Indian Education For All initiative which ensures students and educators are knowledgeable about tribal histories, languages, sovereignty, cultures, treaty rights, governance, and socioeconomic experiences within Minnesota.

These words are permanent teachers waiting to be discovered throughout the hallways, in the classrooms and around the building. With a quick QR connection to pronunciation they make it possible for beginners to dive in and experts to confirm they are part of a network of speakers.

Please send us photos of QR codes being installed or used in your community! Below are some photos from Cook County Schools in northern Minnesota. Send photos to Stacie Sheldon.