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Strategic plan targets invasive species
The Superior Daily Telegram (11/17)
Douglas County’s Land Conservation Committee is forwarding a plan to the county board that takes aim at invasive species.
Mich. Clean Marina Program: Public-private partners work together to improve water quality
Grand Rapids Environmental News Examiner (11/9)
Partners from the public and private sector in Michigan are working together in a voluntary program to improve the quality of the Great Lakes.
Researchers seek funding for wind test site in Lake Michigan
Grand Rapids Environmental News Examiner (11/7)
In a recent article in The Muskegon Chronicle, it was reported that researchers at Grand Valley State University’s Michigan Alternative and Renewable Energy Center (MAREC) cited a lack of year-around data (on wind platform testing) needed by prospective development companies.
COMMENTARY: Senate needs to pass clean energy act to help Michigan
The Grand Rapids Press (10/26)
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was absolutely correct with his recent proclamation about the current condition of the Great Lakes State: "The State of Michigan," Reid declared from the Senate Floor, with a copy Time Magazine in his hand, "is in trouble."
First Nation women 'walk the environmental talk'
WeNews (10/23)
Tomorrow's global day of climate activism aims for media and political attention. First Nation women have another way. Since 2003, they've walked the shoreline of a Great Lake or major river, meditating on the needs of an unborn generation.
City making big push for water school
The Business Journal (10/23)
The push is on to convince the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee that the best location for its new School of Freshwater Sciences is near the university’s existing Great Lakes Water Institute on East Greenfield Avenue.
What's going on in your neighborhood this month? Meet other people and learn together at recreational and educational events! Our new dynamic calendar is updated daily with current educational events.
7 | Oral tradition about the lakes and land
Respect for the Great Lakes
The Great Lakes were bountiful sources of food for the Native Peoples and, therefore, well respected and often the subject of spiritual practices.
Native Peoples, especially in the Lake Superior region, are known to say a prayer, accompanied sometimes with a gift of tobacco, whenever they pass a remarkable or dangerous place on the Great Lakes.
It was also the Native Peoples who first noticed that Lake Superior's outline resembles a bow and arrow, of which the cord is the south shore and the arrow is the Keweenaw Point of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The north shore is the bow drawn back for action.
Outlet of Lake SuperiorTo understand this story, one must know that the fisher is an animal in the marten family, a relative of the mink, that was formerly a common inhabitant around the lake. In the Ojibwe language, the Great (Big) Dipper constellation is the Great Fisher star.
The story goes that as Nanabooshoo was out walking one day, he heard a pleasing song. Hastening to the spot whence it came, he reached the shore of Lake Superior and saw a Great Fisher holding the shores together by leaping back and forth from shore to shore while he sang:
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The shores of the sea meet together,
The shores of the sea meet together.
Nanabooshoo watched and listened in rapt admiration for a time and then exclaimed, "Could I do that, too?" So the Great Fisher allowed him to take his place, warning that Nanabooshoo must do exactly what he had just seen and heard and that never by any chance must he sing:
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The shores of the sea draw apart,
The shores of the sea draw apart.
The Great Fisher went off and Nanabooshoo leaped back and forth singing:
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The shores of the sea meet together,
The shores of the sea meet together.
The shores were held together and all went well until a day or two had passed. Then Nanabooshoo began to grow weary and wonder what would happen if he sang the other song. So he began to sing:
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The shores of the sea draw apart,
The shores of the sea draw apart.
He immediately fell into the lake and when he came to the surface, not a piece of shoreline could he see! He began to struggle and to call on the Great Fisher for help. The Great Fisher heard him and returned, singing the original song and leaping back and forth. The shores drew together once more and Nanabooshoo was saved.
Preserving the Circle of the SeasonsThe ongoing health and well-being of the Earth as she moves through the changing circle of her seasons each year is of major importance to the Ojibwe people. Traditional recognition of the inter-connectedness of all living things contributes to a holistic view. "It is with thanks that life is taken so we might live," the Ojibwe say, "but we must also seriously consider the well-being and preservation of all species and look forward to the needs of the Seventh Generation."
As those that walked before us provided for the well-being of today's people, so must we think of who will walk the Circle in many years to come.
The Earth's water system is compared to the human circulatory system in Ojibwe thought. "Water, as it flows through the rivers, lakes and streams, seeps through underground passageways or spurts out of the Earth's surface as an artesian well," they say.
Water, known as "nibi" in Ojibwe, is the source of life and, as such, becomes the responsibility of women. Nibi must be protected, kept pure, for all life now and to come.
Photo: North shore of Lake Superior, Great Lakes Commission. Legends: "Outlet of Lake Superior," from Lake Superior, The American Lake Series, by Grace Lee Nute; "Preserving the Circle of the Seasons," Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission.
