Hopewell System

Most tribal peoples of Canada and the United States don't speak of the Hopewell System, but from Chippewa and Ojibwa of the north to the Choctaw and Chickasaw of the south a feeling comes up. Its a feeling like, perhaps a stream of arterial blood or a stream of energy connecting them. There are Ojibwa who speak a language that can speak of that flow of wise energy. Its a language which caries more knowledge than many realize. Navajo, Cree, and Inuit speak powerful languages and they know the waters too. The Ojibwa have long known the water ways.


When a language dies much dies with it, but not all. There are other symbols and memories. When I was young perhaps 300,000 could speak the language known to the Ojibwa, now there are not that many. There are still those who can speak more than one sentence and those who can remember a whole chant without an error. The language has guardians and supporters.


These days the gene-pool of the Cherokee may be larger and spread more widely than the Ojibwa line. Who can tell the blood?


In a dream I have been told that we have a few drops of the blood of the sea-going Miigis, but that we ate the wrong turtle. I don't know what the dream means, suspect that it may speak of a lost power that is not completely lost.


My home is far from the great rivers and far from the Great Lakes, but I have heard of an island that has more than a hundred lakes on it! Many of those lakes have islands on them! I reminds me of something I saw on the paper on a can of milk. This same island may be largest island on fresh water. On that island, I hear, are those who ave some memory of thriving connections among many Indian people going back and back and far. They eat Haw berries and remember things. Some teach. They remember the old word for copper.


Some of the people who come to that island, I hear, know strange names like Anishiwaabe, Sheguiada, Shehewaning, and Miigis too. I may have been drunk in LA when someone told me.


If you know more please tell. If I have spoken a lie please tell me. I try to give my best understanding.

Intimations of an Ancient Heartland

Long before the Seven Nations Confederation of First Peoples was a Seven Hundred Tribes and Chiefdoms system. It lasted for an amazingly peaceful thousand years. There is much I don't know about this system and I hope that you will tell me more.

I believe that in the minds of elders of peoples like the Algonquin, Arkansas, Blood, Calusa, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, Delaware, Huron, Illinois, Iroquois, Kickapoo, Menominee, Miami, Mohawk, Natchez, Onondaga, Osage, Ottawa, Owasca, Pawnee, Pottawatomie, Seminole, Shawnee, Seneca, Whyandotte, and many others there is a memory of those times. Dances and chants of atlatl, mega-fauna, travels, and revered ancestors may relate to those times.
Tell me more. Let's share.

The kept strong for long; before the time of corn. The time is long, but the blood is the same. Perhaps what kept them strong was: a trade and commerce as holy and sacred as it was competitive; an ongoing dialogue and interaction which was  respectful even when carried on in sign language; a highly varied diet of fresh nutritious food including gardens of produce largely unknown to us now and usually lots of hickory nuts;
an avoidance of monoculture; a well developed appreciation of art, craft, and beauty shown in many ways(they loved their pan pipes and sometimes covered them in copper or even silver); a love of wood and water which lead those people to use them and benefit from them well. They had been great hunters who had so long appreciated the atlatl that it had become part of their spiritual life. They lived a life that was the imperfect life of all men, but one that made them strong, and happier than most.

Some of the source of their strength and happiness can be found in the oldest songs and dances, and in the old stories.

There was an excellent trail for them, they especially like the fresh water of lakes and rivers, but knew the salt waters too. The wetlands were  source of wealth for them.

For, perhaps, 10,000 years of ups and downs they thrived through the changes on the land.
Many of of the present cities, states, rivers, streams, and lakes carry their names through time. Let's know them better. I would know them better. We live among them still.

Let's share what we know, imagine, suspect, and believe of them. The more we know of them the better are our chances to live long and prosper.