Native American Mamas tribe - Page 17

[Jennbee]

Originally Posted by MamaInTheBoonies

Anyone going or sending their DC's father?
http://www.rlnn.com/ArtNov06/1stAnnN...onference.html

Too far for DH to go; he isn't intested in conferences anyway. But, I will be passing the info on to social workers in my community. There is a fathering program called Nurturing Fathers Learning (N.F.L.) program here that is only a couple of years old. The facilitators might get some ideas if they attend the next conference.
Thanks for sharing MITB.

[Little Bear's Mama]

s

Nice to see you all again! Three years later and this thread is still going!

Not much going on here. Due to lots of changes this year, we haven't made it out to very many pow wows at all. The last one of the Fall season will be in Atmore, which is a good 5 hour drive. I don't think we'll be making that one, either.

Someone asked about Thanksgiving and Christmas...yes, we celebrate. Like another poster said, we try to do Native foods for Thanksgiving, and we celebrate our own style, not neccessarily the "pilgram" version. For Christmas, we celebrate the traditional Christian way, but we have our own traditions, too. For example, our Christmas tree has NA angels, medicine wheels, and dreamcatchers in addition to the glass balls and lights you would see on any Christmas tree. This year, I am planning for our holiday feast to include traditional foods, like buffalo and wild rice.

[~member~]

Just got back from the powwow at the Indian Center. It was awesome. They had a huge feast and speakers that were brought from all over....Michael Dahl, Mr. Holy Bull....those are the two I remember....there were more.
It was also my 19 month old's first outing wih NO dipes! We had no accidents! Yay!
I brought our grandson with, also. Their cousins and aunties and uncles were there and they all helped. So, that was nice.

I do have a headache, now, though....I think from lack of coffee. They only served water and some kind of pink lemonade stuff.

And, of course, I forgot the shawls. The girls didn't mind, though and danced anyways.

[indigenousmama]

is anyone going to the skydome pow-wow in toronto this month? we are. my 4 year old daughter has been talking about it all week! she is so excited. my mum is making her a new jingle dress just for the occasion.

[~member~]

http://www.rlnn.com/ArtNov06/Barefoo...SaveLives.html

"We had nothing, not even scissors," said Josefina Amable, a 56-year-old Nahua Indian, as she set out shoeless from a mountain hamlet to see a heavily pregnant patient. "We used a machete cleaned with rum and needles for sewing clothes."

But I do like this part of the article.

Amable said she was glad she no longer needed to use tools like machetes in her job, but said that there was one concession to modernity she would never make.

"In sandals I would slip in the mud," she said, looking down at her calloused bare feet while striding through a lush valley to a patient's house. "This way I can dig my toes in."

Reminds me of the births I attended on the many Reservations and Reserves.

[~member~]

Annual 4 Day Thanksgiving Pow Wow ~ Held Thanksgiving Weekend
'Minneapolis American Indian Center, Minneapolis, MN'
"Sponsored by; Hennepin County Chemical Health Division, Mental
Health Division, Diversity Committee, AFSCME Council 6, MIWRC, St.
Olaf Church, Grotto Foundation, AIBDC, ECI, Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe,
Prairie Island Dakota, The Circle Newspaper, Minneapolis American
Indian Center, MAAJII, Healthy Nations, American Indian Services,
Minneapolis Public Schools."

http://www.thepeoplespaths.net/events.html

I love, LOVE this powwow!!! Looking forward to this week-end.

[redhen]

I am possibly half Native American. Sadly, I don't even know. My mom confessed to me about a year ago (at the age of 22) that my "father" is not biologicially my father and that I'm the product of a one night stand she had with a casino employee in Las Vegas.

Which explain why my two 6+ft brothers are pale and have red hair and blue eyes and why I have dark skin, brown eyes, and brown hair. I've been told my entire life by people with zero tact that I "didn't look white" or look like I have "something in me". My mom is seriouysly so ignorant that she doesn't know the ethnicity of my birth father but believes he was Native or Hispanic. :

Anyway, I know my birth father's name and have gone as far as finding his address but have not yet contacted him. I assume I'm half Native but I'd really like to learn about my true heritage someday.

Hi Mamas!

[angela dawn]

can I join too?

Hello all my Indigenous sisters.....

I'm new to this thread, actually I'm kind new to the whole Mothering dot commune neighborhood.

I'm a full blooded Cree from British Columbia. My parents are from Northern Alberta, however, they both left the rez when they were kids. So, I kinda grew up in a small town in BC. I'm currently engaged to a Mohawk man from Eastern Canada (Ontario) and we are gettting ready to have our 2nd baby in March 2007. Our second little indian baby....can't wait. Our first one left to be with the Creator, (another story for another day). I am also raising my sisters 7 year old daughter. She's half Cree and Half Chippewa. I also work in an Aboriginal child welfare agency in Vancouver, BC. I did child protection previously, now I am doing more family support type work.

Glad to see this thread, I didn't think there were too many Indian Momma's that visited this board. I hope we can have interesting conversations, Oh, by the way, as you may have noticed I'm from Canada eh! lol Just wondering if there are any other Anishnabe's from Canada....

Talk to you all later!

[~member~]

Angela! Good to see you post here.

[MommyHawk]

Originally Posted by angela dawn

Just wondering if there are any other Anishnabe's from Canada....

Welcome!!! And although we're not from Canada, my DH's side is Algonkin from the Quebec area (or so we have been told) and I've been trying to get him to think about moving up there ...used to live in MI, now in MD...if you have any connections with the Algonkin Band I'd love to find out more than I can online...anyway..Welcome!!

[Jennbee]

Originally Posted by angela dawn

Oh, by the way, as you may have noticed I'm from Canada eh! lol Just wondering if there are any other Anishnabe's from Canada....

Boozhoo, sort of from Canada too.

[indigenousmama]

hi there! i'm from canada too! we live in toronto, but i'm from north bay.

i also work for a native child welfare agency here in toronto. i'm currently on mat leave, i'm not planning on going back.

welcome!

[Jennbee]

Originally Posted by indigenousmama

hi there! i'm from canada too! we live in toronto, but i'm from north bay.

i also work for a native child welfare agency here in toronto. i'm currently on mat leave, i'm not planning on going back.

welcome!

OMG do I know you? You seem familiar, your name and where you're from. Pm'ing you.

[angela dawn]

Originally Posted by indigenousmama

hi there! i'm from canada too! we live in toronto, but i'm from north bay.

i also work for a native child welfare agency here in toronto. i'm currently on mat leave, i'm not planning on going back.

welcome!

Glad to see some fellow Canadians.....

Your from North Bay, for some reason you sound familiar to me too. I'm not from that area, but my fiance is, he works for First Nations Statistical Institute and I think the Chief lives in North Bay, Chief Tom Bressette.

Anyway, small Indian world, I always say. I also worked in Child protection, I don't blame you for not returning to the field. It takes a toll on ya eh. I am doing family support now, which I really like.

Nice to meet ya'll

Ang

[indigenousmama]

hi there. we just might have crossed paths before, indian country is small!

i haven't lived in north bay for many years, but i still go back often to visit my family.

yes, working in child protection is kind of rough at times. oddly though, i think it was having my own kids that helped me let go of the stress i would pick up at work. i mean, yeah, there were some really bad days, but having my own family to take care of is what kept me sane, kwim?

i don't plan on going back to work, i intend to start a business, i have no idea what yet, but i'm working on it! LOL

bye for now,

billie-jo

[japonica]

Hi everyone...do you have room for one more?

I'm another Canuck, from Alberta. But my roots are in southern Saskatchewan and Manitoba...Red River Metis at least 5 generations back (genealogy is a hobby as it seems to be with a lot of us Metis--LOL). My father grew up in a mud-wall cabin in a Metis ("halfbreed") settlement just across the river from one of the reserves in southern SK. He spoke Michif (the Metis language that is part French, part Cree), sadly us kids never learned it. He played guitar and a lot of my relatives are still into jigging and dances. It's been a few years since I went to a good Metis square dance though. I do manage some beadwork from time to time, but my bannock is awful Some of my relatives do a tasty fried version called beignes. So yummy, and so bad for the arteries--LOL.

I am currently a SAHM to my little DD who just turned 2 (Angela, I also have a little angel as well, our left us at 40 weeks, and as you say, that's a whole other story, but the local elders helped us get through that time in our lives). I finished my Master's degree in Anthro this past year (I wanted to continue in Native Studies, as was my undergrad but my uni didn't offer it, so I went into Anthro and shook them up a little and kept them all honest-- ). I've been married for 7 years (he's not Aboriginal but I don't hold that against him) and I've travelled quite a bit but I really feel at home back in Saskatchewan and miss it quite a bit. It's been almost a year and a half since I went back there to see my relatives and it's a very tangible longing that I feel everyday.

Anyway, hi to all the mamas...hi MITB (vax board)

J

[~member~]

japonica

[MommyHawk]

japonica!

do you do your Bannock bread with lard or butter? My last one I did with Butter and it might not be what to use, but it's really good and lasted a while - great with honey as DS says...You're from Manitoba - do you have ties with the Algonkin Nation? DH is part Algonkin and we're putting the pieces together - slowly, but surely

[MommyHawk]

finding the holidays hard...

I might be alone in this, and I can't say this to many others because they are so blind and get so defensive - but I find that every year comes with more doubt when it comes time to celebrate holidays. The church/religion that I was raised with is so riddled with corruption and murderers and child sex offenders...and they don't ever get in trouble, are not repentive, and are hidden in other congregations as a way to 'hide the problem'....I just am having a hard time keeping my mind with it - I don't go to church anymore, I don't have my kids go either. DH stopped going YEARs ago and I always felt that he was doing something wrong until I started to see the light too...and now I don't even want to go - I might belive in God, but I don't believe in the church anymore. It's so one sided, judgemental when the bible says that the only person who can judge is God...and so many other things wrong with it...and to add more negatives I have been doing some reading into Indian Residential Schools and although I learned about the abuse in college, I never knew about the murders...and the fact that the church continues to 'hide' them to this day!

I found this site from one of the yahoo lists I'm on http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org/
I know there are still some residential schools out there and from what I can tell, only the kids who are from broken homes are allowed in, so they are sort of like orphan schools...but from the history of people using the church as a way to kidnap, 'educate', abuse, and kill off people...and show no remores and ask no forgiveness...:

There is a list of people/places to boycott on that site if you are interested.

[japonica]

Thanks for the welcomes! I feel so at home already

Mommyhawk: I bake it with butter but my problem is that I don't have the kneading technique down right yet. I always overknead it and it gets rock hard (hockey puck bannock as we call it). My DH though is great at baking breads and can do it no problem, so the running joke in our house is that the bannock is edible if the white guy made it!

I'm actually in Alberta and most of my family is from southern Saskatchewan. The MB relatives lived there ca.1850-1860 before they moved to southern Saskatchewan. They were all gone by the resistance of 1870 for sure.

About the church and schools, yeah it's a tough one. My whole family on my Dad's side is Catholic (except our generation...my parents married inter-faith and we were raised Protestant) but I still attend a local Native Catholic church once in a while on special occasions and as a way of "connecting" with my ancestors and my heritage. I don't know if that makes sense, but going to the church on those occasions makes me feel closer to my family who has gone before me. I had my daughter baptised there as a way of continuing on with her heritage. The church is a Native-influenced Catholic one with sweetgrass and Native sprituality used during mass as well. I don't mind it. But I know what you mean about the feelings of anger and the schools. When I did my university degree in Native Studies and spent those years reading about the schools, the Indian Act, broken treaty promises, gov't fraud and duplicity, I had to process a lot of anger. Some of my classmates were residential school survivors and I could see how it had affected every aspect of their lives. One of them committed suicide a couple of years after we got our degrees. *heavy sigh* Man, oh man.

I don't know. I try to keep separate the Creator and the people who supposedly serve him here on Earth. God/the Creator is holy and sacred and pure and loving and forgiving, but all humans are fallible (even Native healers, some take advantage as well in the Creator's name). I'm not excusing or forgiving anything done in the schools. It was evil and wrong, wrong, wrong. But just for my own ability to still believe and have faith, I keep God separate from organized religion and its proponents.

((HUGS)) and hang in there...

J