#13 Tecumseh's Monument, ON: Bear Fat Blessings

 


Dave's ancestors would have used crushed ochre in bear fat to paint their message on a rock, and it would have lasted hundreds of years.  Dave used a 'permanent' marker to write his message on our RV banner.  Judging by the fading notes written by others just a week ago, I'd give this one a month or two.  But the 'Word' Dave wrote of and the blessing behind it will last forever.  

Dave had come and talked to me after the church service in Blind River.  He told me of his work - of how he is battling logging companies who are assaulting his ancestral territories.  The First Nation has no problem with trees being harvested.  But it's when these companies spray the forest with a herbicide that kills all the 'undesirable' trees like birch and maple that something in Dave rises up.  It's the 'caretaker / gardener' directive that Gitche Manitou has placed in the DNA of his people and which was first given to Adam.  Dave has taken the battle all the way to the Supreme Court.

After Dave signed his blessing on our banner, I gave him a little jar of Maanazaadi Mashkiki that my daughter Mischa and I had made.  I explained to him that in the Bible it's called Balm of Gilead, but indigenous people used to make something similar.  Dave: "What's in it?"  Me: "Balsam Poplar buds, beeswax and olive oil."  Dave: "I'll bet my people would have used bear fat instead of olive oil."  Man, that bear fat must have been handy stuff!

I prayed for Dave in his work and blessed his people with healing and reconciliation.

A few days later I had another to chance to give a jar of balm away.  I know it won't have done the 'recipient' much good, but I wanted to do something to say thank you to Tecumseh.  

The reason he came up from Kansas with hundreds of followers to fight on Canada's side in the War of 1812 was not because he had any particular love for our country.  He wanted to do anything he could to stop the American assault on his own people, and he hoped that if the US could be defeated on Canadian soil, his hope of a lasting indigenous confederacy could be realized.  

Tecumseh gave his life right near the spot where I left the Maanazaadi Mashkiki. Sadly, his dream would never be realized, but without his sacrifice, Canada would very likely be in different hands today. For that I say, miigwetch.




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